NEW YORK (AP) — U.S. stocks are stumbling toward the close of one of their worst weeks of the year with mixed trading on Friday.
The S&P 500 was basically flat in morning trading after flipping between small losses and gains earlier. It's on track for a 3% loss for the week after the Federal Reserve warned Wednesday it may deliver fewer cuts to interest rates next year than earlier expected
The Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 86 points, or 0.2%, as of 10:15 a.m. Eastern time, while the Nasdaq composite dropped 0.2%.
Stocks still aren’t far from their all-time highs set in recent weeks, but part of the reason they ran to records was traders' widespread expectation for a string of cuts to rates next year. Now they're largely betting on one, two or perhaps even zero in 2025, according to data from CME Group.
“When optimism is rising and market multiples are expanding, it just takes a little fear to take the veneer off a market rally,” according to Brian Jacobsen, chief economist at Annex Wealth Management.
Critics had been warning stock prices were vulnerable to drops after running so high, and they likely needed everything to go correctly to justify their stellar gains for the year so far. Besides the dashed hopes for several rate cuts next year, Wall Street got another reminder late Thursday that everything may not go as expected.
The House of Representatives resoundingly rejected President-elect Donald Trump’s plan to keep the U.S. government fully running ahead of a potential shutdown. It’s unclear what the next steps will be, but the failure indicates Washington may not run smoothly even with Republicans in charge of the House, Senate and White House.
The U.S. stock market has already lost almost all of its gain since Trump’s win on Election Day raised hopes for faster economic growth and more lax regulations on companies, which would boost corporate profits. Worries have risen that Trump’s preference for tariffs and other policies could lead to higher inflation, a bigger U.S. government debt and difficulties for global trade.
“Next year will be a time of huge challenges to the world economy,” High Frequency Economics’ Carl B. Weinberg wrote in a note to clients, citing U.S. political uncertainty, expected global trade wars and geopolitical uncertainty. “We do not look forward to these changes.”
Stocks got some relief from a report in the morning that showed a measure of inflation that the Federal Reserve likes to use was slightly lower than economists expected for last month. It’s a bit of encouragement following recent reports showing inflation may be tough to get all the way down to the Fed’s 2% goal.
The threat of higher inflation was one of the reasons Fed Chair Jerome Powell cited this week when asked why the Fed is slowing its cuts to interest rates, which help goose the economy and boost investment prices. Friday’s update could convince the Fed to keep cutting.
The majority of stocks in the U.S. market rose amid all the swirling forces spinning Wall Street.
Eli Lilly jumped 4.8% and was one of the strongest forces pushing upward on the S&P 500 after rival Novo Nordisk gave an update on a potential weight-loss treatment that analysts said fell short of expectations.
Cruise lines also helped lead the way after Carnival steamed past analysts' expectations for profit in the latest quarter. CEO Josh Weinstein said it's seeing strong demand and expects growth to continue into 2025 thanks in part to higher fares.
Carnival climbed 1.5%, and rival Norwegian Cruise Line rose even more, 3%.
On the losing end of Wall Street was U.S. Steel, which sank 4.2% after saying its fourth-quarter results will likely come in below its earlier forecast. CEO David Burritt said steel prices remain depressed.
Nike fell 1.5% despite reporting a better profit for the latest quarter than analysts expected.
Analysts said changes by Nike’s new CEO, Elliott Hill, to turn around the company will likely cut into financial results in the near term to drive better long-term growth. The company is likely to cut prices to clear its warehouses of old products, for example, and open space for a new wave of innovation.
In the bond market, Treasury yields eased.
The yield on the 10-year Treasury sank to 4.51% from 4.57% late Thursday. It’s still up for the week, though, after the Fed convinced the market that is main interest rate will remain higher than earlier expected.
In stock markets abroad, indexes fell across much of Asia and Europe.
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AP Writers Matt Ott and Zimo Zhong contributed.
