Stock market today: Wall Street edges back from records after Dow briefly tops 40,000

NEW YORK (AP) — U.S. stocks edged back from their record heights Thursday after the Dow Jones Industrial Average briefly topped the 40,000 level for the first time.

The Dow slipped 38.62 points, or 0.1%, to 39,869.38. The S&P 500 index, which is much more widely followed on Wall Street, dipped 11.05, or 0.2%, to 5,297.10, and the Nasdaq composite fell 44.07, or 0.3%, to 16,698.32. All three indexes had rallied on Wednesday to all-time highs.

Deere weighed on the market and sank 4.7% despite reporting stronger profit for its latest quarter than expected. It cut its forecast for upcoming profit this fiscal year, below analysts’ estimates, as farmers buy fewer tractors and other equipment.

Homebuilders also helped drag the market lower following a weaker-than-expected report on the housing industry. They gave back some of their big gains from the day before, when hopes for lower mortgage rates had sent them sharply higher. D.R. Horton sank 4.2%, Lennar fell 3.3% and PulteGroup dropped 2.8%.

Also sinking were GameStop and AMC Entertainment, which slid for a second straight day following their jaw-dropping starts to the week. They’ve been moving more on excitement drummed up by investors than any changes to their financial prospects.

GameStop fell 30%, though it’s still up nearly 59% for the week so far. AMC Entertainment lost 15.3%.

Such drops helped offset a 7% jump for Walmart, which reported stronger profit for the latest quarter than analysts expected. The retailer also said its revenue for the year could top the forecasted range it had earlier given.

Walmart's strength could be an encouraging signal for the broader economy. Worries have been rising about whether U.S. households can keep up with still-high inflation and more expensive credit-card payments, particularly households at the lower end of the income spectrum.

Target, which reports its quarterly results next week, climbed following Walmart's report, along with other retailers like Dollar General and Dollar Tree. Each added at least 2%.

Chubb rose 4.7% after Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway disclosed it had built an ownership stake in the insurer.

Under Armour swung between losses and gains after it warned that its revenue will be likely down by “a low double-digit percentage rate” this upcoming fiscal year, citing weaker demand from wholesalers and “inconsistent execution across our business.”

The company announced a restructuring plan to cut costs and also announced a program to buy back up to $500 million of its stock. It dropped 1.3%.

Stronger-than-expected profit reports have been one of the main reasons U.S. stock indexes have broadly jumped through May to records following a tough April. Another has been revived hopes that the Federal Reserve will be able to cut its main interest rate at least once this year. The Fed has been keeping its federal funds rate at the highest level in more than two decades.

A string of worse-than-expected reports on inflation at the start of the year had put the potential for such cuts in jeopardy, but some more encouraging data has since arrived.

Treasury yields have largely eased in May as hopes rose that the economy could hit the hoped-for sweet spot, where it cools enough because of high interest rates to stifle inflation but not so much that it causes a bad recession.

Yields rose Thursday following some mixed data on the economy, including the report that hurt homebuilder stocks, which showed the industry broke ground on fewer projects than expected.

One report showed slightly more workers applied for unemployment benefits last week than economists expected, though the number remains low compared with history. Others said manufacturing growth in the mid-Atlantic region was weaker than hoped and import prices rose more than forecast.

“Today’s numbers were in line with the overall theme of the week — nothing dramatic, but showing signs of a steady-to-cooling economy,” said Chris Larkin, managing director, trading and investing, at E-Trade from Morgan Stanley.

The yield on the 10-year Treasury climbed to 4.37% from 4.35% late Wednesday. The two-year yield, which moves more closely with expectations for action by the Fed, rose to 4.79% from 4.72%.

In stock markets abroad, indexes were modestly lower in much of Europe after mostly rising in Asia. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng jumped 1.6% after reopening following a holiday, while Japan’s Nikkei 225 rose 1.4%.

AP Business Writers Matt Ott and Elaine Kurtenbach contributed.

FILE - An entrance to the New York Stock Exchange is shown on May 8, 2024, in New York. Shares opened lower in Europe on Thursday, May 16, 2024, after most Asian benchmarks gained, tracking a Wall Street rally driven by hopes that inflation is heading back in the right direction. (AP Photo/Peter Morgan, File)

A person passes an entrance to the Wall Street subway station in New York on Wednesday, May 15, 2024. Trading on Wall Street is muted early ahead of the U.S. government's latest reports on inflation and retail sales. (AP Photo/Peter Morgan)

A currency trader passes by the screen showing the Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI) at the foreign exchange dealing room of the KEB Hana Bank headquarters in Seoul, South Korea, Thursday, May 16, 2024. (AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon)

Banners for Pinterest, displayed to mark the fifth anniversary of the company's listing, hang on the front of the New York Stock Exchange in New York on Wednesday, May 15, 2024. U.S. stocks are rising toward records with hope that inflation is heading back in the right direction. (AP Photo/Peter Morgan)

A currency trader passes by the screen showing the Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI), left, and the foreign exchange rate between U.S. dollar and South Korean won at the foreign exchange dealing room of the KEB Hana Bank headquarters in Seoul, South Korea, Thursday, May 16, 2024. (AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon)

Currency traders work near the screen showing the Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI) at the foreign exchange dealing room of the KEB Hana Bank headquarters in Seoul, South Korea, Thursday, May 16, 2024. (AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon)

SAVANNAH, Ga. (AP) — Survivors of a deadly walkway collapse at a state-run ferry dock on a Georgia island said Thursday that the government should help them pay for funerals for the seven people who died as well as medical bills and mental health counseling for those who lived.

Lawmakers on the Georgia Senate's Urban Affairs Committee heard from four people who were at the dock on Sapelo Island on Oct. 19 when a metal gangway snapped in the middle, sending dozens of people plunging into the water.

Among them was Yvonne Brockington of Jacksonville, Florida, who had arranged for more than 50 members of her club for older adults to visit the island during an annual cultural festival organized by its tiny Gullah-Geechee community of Black slave descendants.

Brockington said she was waiting with others to board an afternoon ferry off the island when she suddenly felt as if she was in a falling elevator. When she stopped suddenly, she felt both of her legs break. While bystanders used a rope to pull Brockington to safety, four members of her club perished.

“The psychological effect, I don't know if it will ever go away, but we definitely need help,” Brockington told lawmakers via video conference from her hospital bed. “It should not have happened. The state of Georgia owes us more than resources. They owe us an apology, and they need to make sure it never happens again.”

Other survivors told the meeting in Atlanta that the traumatic day still haunts them.

Darrel Jenkins, who pulled two people from the water but never learned whether they lived or died, said he continues to have nightmares and asks himself: “What about the people that might not have lived? Could I have done more?”

Regina Brinson said her 79-year-old uncle, Isaiah Thomas, drowned after she had to pry his clutching fingers from her shirt to avoid being dragged underwater herself.

“We need mental health support, financial support, resources to ensure that the survivors and their families have what they need to start recovery,” Brinson said.

The dock on Sapelo Island is operated by the state Department of Natural Resources, which manages the daily ferry service to and from the mainland.

The agency says about 700 people visited Oct. 19 for Cultural Day, a celebration of the tiny Hogg Hummock community founded by emancipated slaves after the Civil War. Hogg Hummock is one of the few Gullah-Geechee communities remaining in the South, where slaves who worked isolated island plantations retained much of their African heritage.

Mawuli Davis, an attorney for some of the people injured in the collapse, told lawmakers his clients have been contacted by state investigators for interviews but not by anyone offering assistance.

Lawmakers said they agree that the state should do more to assist the victims. But how much influence they will have isn't clear: The Senate Urban Affairs Committee is made up of six Democrats, while Republicans control the legislature and the governor's office.

“The state has responsibility,” said Sen. Donzella James, an Atlanta Democrat and the committee's chairperson. “We’re having this hearing to find out what it is exactly they're responsible for.”

The Department of Natural Resources, with assistance from the Georgia Bureau of Investigation, is investigating what caused the collapse. But victims' lawyers have said they don't trust the state agency to investigate itself, and last week Attorney General Chris Carr said he had called in an engineering firm to conduct an independent, parallel investigation.

No one from the Department of Natural Resources spoke before the committee Thursday.

Last weekend the department offered free counseling services to residents of Sapelo Island as well as on the mainland in McIntosh County. It said in a news release that “ongoing mental health resources will be provided to those in need” and that Natural Resources Commissioner Walter Rabon contacted families of those killed and “shared a phone number with them should they need anything.”

The news release also included a hyperlink to an online form that injured people can fill out to file a liability claim with the state.

A Department of Natural Resources spokesperson did not immediately respond to an email message seeking more information on how it is assisting victims.

A portion of the gangway which collapsed Saturday afternoon remains visible on Sapelo Island in McIntosh county, Ga., Sunday, Oct. 20, 2024. (AP Photo/Lewis Levine)

Regina Brinson, center, weeps at a news conference Tuesday, Oct. 22, 2024, while speaking alongside her mother, Katrena Alexander and attorney Ben Crump during a news conference in Jacksonville, Fla. Crump represents families of three of the seven people killed when a ferry dock walkway collapsed on Sapelo Island, Ga., on Saturday, Oct. 19. (AP Photo/Russ Bynum)

Wilbert Gardner, left, hugs Katrena Alexander while Alexander's daughter, Regina Brinson, right, looks on during a news conference Tuesday, Oct. 22, 2024, in Jacksonville, Fla, A dock gangway collapse happened as people were leaving a cultural festival on Sapelo Island, Georgia, on Saturday, Oct. 19, 2024. Alexander's brother, Isaiah Thomas, was among the dead. Gardner had a friend who was hospitalized with injuries. (AP Photo/Russ Bynum)

FILE - A portion of the collapsed gangway remains visible on Sapelo Island in McIntosh County, Ga., on Sunday, Oct. 20, 2024. (AP Photo/Lewis Levine, File)