Stock market today: Wall Street edges back from its record highs

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Stock market today: Wall Street edges back from its record highs

2024-09-26 04:16 Last Updated At：04:20

NEW YORK (AP) — U.S. stocks edged back from their records Wednesday as financial markets around the world took a pause following big recent moves.

The S&P 500 slipped 0.2% a day after setting an all-time high for the 41st time this year. The Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 293 points, or 0.7%, after likewise setting a record the day before, while the Nasdaq composite edged up by less than 0.1%.

Treasury yields ticked higher in the bond market after sinking the prior day on a surprisingly weak update on confidence among U.S. consumers. The worst drop in three years raised worries about the U.S. economy’s strength, but it also raised expectations for the Federal Reserve to deliver another dose of bigger-than-usual relief through a big cut to interest rates at its next meeting.

The drop may also not be as bad as it looks, at least for financial markets. The worst losses in confidence have been concentrated among lower-income households, who have had to put more purchases on credit cards, according to Jack Ablin, chief investment officer at Cresset. But when it comes to the economy, and potential profits for companies, top earners account for more spending on non-essentials, and their confidence appears to be holding up better.

In stock markets abroad, indexes moved more modestly after jumping the day before on hopes that new stimulus measures from China would prop up the world’s second-largest economy. Chinese indexes rose again Wednesday, but they pared their gains as the day progressed, while European indexes slipped. Prices for crude oil also gave back gains.

On Wall Street, Stitch Fix tumbled 39.5% after the online fashion styling service said its revenue in the current quarter could be 15% to 17% weaker than a year earlier. Its stock has dropped below $3 from $100 early in the pandemic.

KB Home fell 45.4% after reporting profit for the latest quarter that was just shy of analysts’ expectations. The homebuilder, though, said orders picked up in August as mortgage rates came down.

A separate report released Wednesday morning said sales of new homes across the country slowed in August, but not by as much as economists feared.

The next date on the calendar circled for a potentially big market move is next week, when the latest monthly update on the U.S. job market will arrive. Slowing hiring in the world’s largest economy has become the top concern among investors, now that inflation has eased significantly from its peak two summers ago.

While the number of layoffs remains relatively low, U.S. employers are also more hesitant to hire. Critics worry the job market could weaken further as the cumulative effects of all the past hikes to interest rates made by the Federal Reserve show themselves.

The Fed kept its main interest rate at a two-decade high for more than a year in hopes of slowing the U.S. economy enough to stifle inflation. Last week, it swung toward protecting the job market by cutting the federal funds rate by a larger-than-usual half of a percentage point. Critics say it may be moving too late.

A strong job market would help Cintas, which provides uniforms, fire extinguishers and other products to businesses. It rose 1.2% after reporting stronger profit for the latest quarter than analysts expected. Cintas also increased its forecasts for profit and revenue over the full fiscal year.

Trump Media & Technology Group jumped 10.5% for its first back-to-back gain in two weeks. The stock had been struggling amid speculation about whether former President Donald Trump would sell some of his shares in the company behind the Truth Social network, now that he is free to do so.

All told, the S&P 500 fell 10.67 points to 5,722.26. The Dow dipped 293.47 to 41,914.75, and the Nasdaq composite added 7.68 to 18,082.21.

In the bond market, the yield on the 10-year Treasury rose to 3.78% from 3.73% late Tuesday. The two-year yield, which moves more closely with expectations for the Fed, rose to 3.56% from 3.54%.

Traders are betting on a roughly 60% probability the Federal Reserve will deliver another cut of half of a percentage point at its next meeting in November, according to data from CME Group. The Fed has traditionally moved rates by only a quarter of a percentage point at a time.

In stock markets abroad, indexes rose 1.2% in Shanghai, fell 1.3% in South Korea and slipped 0.2% in London.

AP Business Writers Matt Ott and Elaine Kurtenbach contributed.

Minnesota protesters, agents repeatedly square off while prosecutors quit after Renee Good's death

MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — Federal officers dropped tear gas and sprayed eye irritant at activists Tuesday during another day of confrontations in Minneapolis, while students miles away walked out of a suburban school to protest the Trump administration's bold immigration sweeps.

Meanwhile, the fallout from the fatal shooting of a Minneapolis woman by an immigration agent reached the local U.S. Attorney's Office: At least five prosecutors have resigned amid controversy over how the U.S. Justice Department is handling the investigation, according to people familiar with the matter.

Separately, a Justice Department official said Wednesday there's no basis for a criminal civil rights investigation. An FBI probe of Renee Good's death is ongoing.

Strife between federal agents and the public continues to boil, six days since Good was shot in the head while driving off in her Honda Pilot. At one scene, gas clouds filled a Minneapolis street near where she died. A man scrubbed his eyes with snow and screamed for help after agents in a Jeep sprayed an orange irritant and drove off.

It’s common for people to boo, taunt and blow orange whistles when they spot heavily armed immigration agents passing through in unmarked vehicles or walking the streets, all part of a grassroots effort to warn the neighborhood and remind the government that they’re watching.

“Who doesn't have a whistle?” a man with a bag of them yelled.

Brita Anderson, who lives nearby and came to support neighborhood friends, said she was “incensed” to see agents in tactical gear and gas masks, and wondered about their purpose.

“It felt like the only reason they’d come here is to harass people,” Anderson said.

In Brooklyn Park, Minnesota, students protesting the immigration enforcement operation walked out of school, as students in other communities have done this week.

Later, a large crowd gathered outside a hotel in Minneapolis banging drums and blowing whistles as officers wearing helmets and carrying batons stood guard just inside. Meanwhile, confrontations erupted between protesters and officers guarding the federal building being used as a base for the Twin Cities crackdown.

The departures in the U.S. Attorney's Office include First Assistant U.S. Attorney Joe Thompson, who had been leading the sprawling prosecution of public fraud schemes in the state, according to people who spoke to The Associated Press on the condition of anonymity to discuss personnel matters.

With the Department of Homeland Security pledging to send more than 2,000 immigration officers into Minnesota, the state, joined by Minneapolis and St. Paul, sued President Donald Trump’s administration Monday to halt or limit the surge.

The lawsuit says Homeland Security is violating the First Amendment and other constitutional protections by focusing on a progressive state that favors Democrats and welcomes immigrants.

“What we are seeing is thousands — plural — thousands of federal agents coming into our city. And, yeah, they’re having a tremendous impact on day-to-day life,” Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey said.

A judge set a status conference for Wednesday.

Homeland Security says it has made more than 2,000 arrests in the state since early December and is vowing to not back down. Spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin, responding to the lawsuit, accused Minnesota officials of ignoring public safety.

In a different lawsuit, a judge said she would rule by Thursday or Friday on a request to restrict the use of force, such as chemical irritants, on people who are observing and recording agents' activities. Government attorneys argued that officers must protect themselves.

The Trump administration has repeatedly defended the immigration agent who shot Good, a 37-year-old mother of three, saying he acted in self-defense. But that explanation has been widely panned by Frey, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz and others based on videos of the confrontation.

State and local authorities are urging the public to share video and any other evidence as they seek to separately investigate Good's death after federal authorities insisted they would approach it alone and not share information.

In Wisconsin, Lt. Gov. Sara Rodriguez is proposing that the state ban civil immigration enforcement around courthouses, hospitals, health clinics, schools, churches and other places. She is hoping to succeed Gov. Tony Evers, a fellow Democrat, who is not running for a third term.

“We can take a look at that, but I think banning things absolutely will ramp up the actions of our folks in Washington, D.C.,” Evers said, referring to the Trump administration. “They don’t tend to approach those things appropriately.”

Associated Press reporters Ed White in Detroit; Steve Karnowski in Minneapolis; and Scott Bauer in Madison, Wisconsin, contributed.