The Fearless Girl statue faces the New York Stock Exchange, Tuesday, July 20, 2021. Stocks are off to a mixed start on Wall Street, Friday, Aug. 13 as gains for communications and health care companies are checked by weakness in energy and other sectors. (AP Photo/Richard Drew)
By Damian J. Troise and Alex Veiga
Another wobbly day of trading on Wall Street gave way Friday to small gains and new highs for the S&P 500 and Dow Jones Industrial Average.
The two indexes wavered for much of the day before eking out their fourth straight gains. The benchmark S&P 500 rose 0.2% and notched its second-straight weekly increase. The Dow and the Nasdaq edged up less than 0.1%.
Stocks in the S&P 500 were nearly evenly split between winners and losers. Gains in technology, health care and household goods companies outweighed losses by banks, energy stocks and other sectors. Small-company stocks fell more than the broader market.
An economic report showing a big drop in consumer confidence last month due to the spreading delta variant of the coronavirus didn't keep the market from managing more records.
“The reality is the market is holding up pretty well," said Rob Haworth, senior portfolio manager at U.S. Bank Wealth Management. He noted that the consumer sentiment report is "something the market is looking through as temporary.”
The S&P 500 rose 7.17 points to 4,468. The Dow added 15.53 points to 35,515.38, and the Nasdaq picked up 6.64 points to 14,822.90.
The University of Michigan consumer sentiment index fell to 70.2 from its previous level of 81.2 in July. That was the largest drop in sentiment since April 2020, when the pandemic took its initial grip on the country.
The unexpectedly bad drop in the survey’s reading was almost entirely due to the spread of the delta variant of the coronavirus, which has caused hospitals to fill up with unvaccinated patients across the U.S.
While the broader market indexes notched slight gains, concerns about the resurgent virus prompted some investors to shift money away from companies that could take a hit from people pulling back on spending for travel and other in-person services, said Jay Hatfield, CEO of Infrastructure Capital Advisors.
American Airlines fell 2.9%, while Las Vegas Sands slid 2%. And the Russell 2000 index of small companies fell 20.96 points, or 0.9%, to 2,223.11, another sign traders were worried about future economic growth.
Technology companies made some of the broadest gains. Chipmaker Advanced Micro Devices rose 3.8%, while eBay climbed 7.4% for the biggest gain in the S&P 500.
Healthcare companies also gained ground. Pfizer rose 2.6% and Regeneron Pharmaceuticals gained 2.8%. Moderna slipped 0.4% after U.S. regulators authorized a booster shot of their COVID-19 vaccines for people with weakened immune systems.
Disney rose 1.% after the company returned to a profit last quarter, helped by the reopening of its theme parks and more subscribers to its Disney+ service.
Bond yields fell, which weighed on banks. The yield on the 10-year Treasury dropped to 1.29% from 1.34% late Thursday. JPMorgan Chase lost 1.1%.
A Michigan judge is putting sponges in the hands of shoplifters and ordering them to wash cars in a Walmart parking lot when spring weather arrives. Genesee County Judge Jeffrey Clothier hopes the unusual form of community service discourages people from stealing from Walmart. The judge also wants to reward shoppers with free car washes. Clothier says he began ordering “Walmart wash” sentences this week for shoplifting at the store in Grand Blanc Township. He believes 75 to 100 people eventually will be ordered to wash cars this spring. Clothier says he will be washing cars alongside them when the time comes.
The State Department had been in talks with Elon Musk’s Tesla company to buy armored electric vehicles, but the plans have been put on hold by the Trump administration after reports emerged about a potential $400 million purchase. A State Department spokesperson said the electric car company owned by Musk was the only one that expressed interest back in May 2024. The deal with Tesla was only in its planning phases but it was forecast to be the largest contract of the year. It shows how some of his wealth has come and was still expected to come from taxpayers.
At 100 years old, the Goodyear Blimp is an ageless star in the sky. The 246-foot-long airship will be in the background of the Daytona 500 — flying roughly 1,500 feet above Daytona International Speedway, actually — to celebrate its greatest anniversary tour. Even though remote camera technologies are improving regularly and changing the landscape of aerial footage, the blimp continues to carve out a niche. At Daytona, with the usual 40-car field racing around a 2½-mile superspeedway, views from the blimp aptly provide the scope of the event.
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It’s a chicken-and-egg problem: Restaurants are struggling with record-high U.S. egg prices, but their omelets, scrambles and huevos rancheros may be part of the problem. Breakfast is booming at U.S. eateries. First Watch, a restaurant chain that serves breakfast, brunch and lunch, nearly quadrupled its locations over the past decade to 570. Fast-food chains like Starbucks and Wendy's added more egg-filled breakfast items. In normal times, egg producers could meet the demand. But a bird flu outbreak that has forced them to slaughter their flocks is making supplies scarcer and pushing up prices. Some restaurants like Waffle House have added a surcharge to offset their costs.
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U.S. tariffs on steel and aluminum “will not go unanswered,” European Union chief Ursula von der Leyen vowed on Tuesday, adding that they will trigger toug
