US stocks dip and break Wall Street's record-breaking, weeklong run
[July 30, 2025] By
STAN CHOE
NEW YORK (AP) — Wall Street’s record-breaking, weeklong run ran out of
momentum on Tuesday.
The S&P 500 slipped 0.3% for its first drop after closing at an all-time
high in six successive days. The Dow Jones Industrial Average sank 204
points, or 0.5%, and the Nasdaq composite shaved 0.4% off its own
record.
SoFi Technologies climbed 6.6%, but Merck dropped 1.7% and UPS sank
10.6% following a torrent of profit reports from big U.S. companies.
They’re among the hundreds of companies telling investors this week how
much they made during the spring, including nearly a third of the stocks
in the S&P 500 index.
Treasury yields eased in the bond market as the Federal Reserve began a
two-day meeting where they will decide what to do with short-term
interest rates.
Despite angry lobbying from President Donald Trump for lower rates,
which would give the economy a boost, the widespread expectation is that
the Fed will wait for more data about how Trump’s tariffs are affecting
inflation and the economy before making its next move.
The U.S. economy has seemed to hold up OK so far despite the pressures
of tariffs, though it does appear to be slowing. One report on Tuesday
said that U.S. employers were advertising fewer job openings at the end
of June than a month before, though still more than economists expected.
A separate report said confidence rose among U.S. consumers, but a
measure of their expectations about the near term remains below the
level that typically signals a recession ahead.
“Consumer confidence has stabilized since May, rebounding from April’s
plunge, but remains below last year’s heady levels,” according to
Stephanie Guichard, senior economist, global indicators, at The
Conference Board.
Wall Street had a relatively muted reaction after China’s top trade
official said that China and the United States have agreed to work on
extending a deadline for new tariffs on each other. Trade officials from
the world's two largest economies had been talking in Stockholm ahead of
an Aug. 12 deadline, after which much higher tariffs are scheduled to
resume.
U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer, though, said that U.S.
officials would head back to Washington and “talk to the president about
whether that’s something that he wants to do,” meaning an extension in
the pause in tariffs.
Later this week, another deadline is looming on Friday for many of
Trump’s proposed tariffs on other countries. Several highly anticipated
economic reports are also on the way, including the latest monthly
update on the job market.
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Trader Steven Gohl works on the floor of the New York Stock
Exchange, Monday, July 21, 2025. (AP Photo/Richard Drew)
 The jam-packed week could prove
pivotal in determining whether the U.S. stock market can keep
climbing to more records or succumb to criticism that it’s grown too
expensive following its dramatic leap in recent months.
One way companies can tamp down such criticism is to deliver solid
growth in profits.
That helped Cadence Design Systems, whose stock came into the day
with a gain of 11.1% for the year so far. The computational software
company said it’s continuing to benefit from the flood of investment
into the artificial-intelligence industry, and it raised its
forecast for revenue growth this year. Its stock rallied 9.7%.
But investors have also been punishing stocks of companies that have
failed to meet expectations so far this reporting season.
UnitedHealth Group dropped 7.5% after reporting a profit for the
spring that fell short of analysts’ expectations. It also gave a
forecast for profit over all of 2025 that investors found
disappointing. The health care giant said it expected to earn at
least $16 per share, when analysts were looking for something close
to $20, according to FactSet.
Shares of Novo Nordisk that trade in the United States tumbled 21.8%
after the Danish company cut its forecast for sales growth this
year, in part because of lower expectations for its Wegovy
weight-loss drug amid high competition. It also named a new chief
executive officer.
All told, the S&P 500 fell 18.91 points to 6,370.86. The Dow Jones
Industrial Average dropped 204.57 to 44,632.99, and the Nasdaq
composite gave up 80.29 to 21,098.29.
In stock markets abroad, Japan’s Nikkei fell 0.8%, but indexes
elsewhere rose across much of Asia and Europe.
In the bond market, the yield on the 10-year U.S. Treasury dropped
to 4.32% from 4.42% late Monday.
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AP Business Writers Yuri Kageyama and Matt Ott contributed.
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