Dow Jones hits new record high in slow Wall Street session
Wall Street hit another record high on Tuesday, though major stock indexes were little changed after a thin trading day.
The Dow Jones industrial average rose 9 points, or less than 0.1%, enough to hit its second record high in two days. The index has now had eight straight days of gains.
The S&P 500 and Nasdaq each rose 0.2% after swinging between small gains and losses for much of the day. The benchmark S&P 500 is now within 0.8% of its all-time high reached last month.
The number of stocks that ended lower was slightly higher than those that rose on the New York Stock Exchange, reflecting the volatile trading this week. Stock indexes closed mixed on Monday.
The S&P 500 and Dow have been hovering near record highs since last week amid investor expectations that the Federal Reserve will soon cut interest rates.
Wall Street also looked to company earnings reports to get a sense of the health of the economy, consumer spending and whether stock prices of big tech companies like Nvidia were rising relative to growth prospects.
“That’s the point, and I think all eyes will be on Nvidia when it reports this week,” said Bill Merz, head of capital markets research at U.S. Bank Wealth Management.