NEW YORK (AP) — Wall Street is drifting Thursday following a rush of profit reports from big U.S. companies, as a sharp drop for IBM helps cancel out a surge for Tesla.
The S&P 500 was 0.2% higher in afternoon trading. It’s coming off of its first three-day losing streak since early September.
The Nasdaq composite was up 0.7%, as of 3:11 p.m. Eastern, while the Dow Jones Industrial Average was lagging the rest of the market with a drop of 145 points, or 0.3%.
IBM was one of the heaviest weights on the market and fell 6.5% after reporting revenue for the latest quarter that fell just short of analysts’ expectations. It was the single biggest reason the Dow was dragging behind other indexes.
Boeing was another heavy weight and sank 1.4% after its machinists voted to continue their strike, which has crippled aircraft production. More than 60% of union members who voted on the proposed contract rejected it, keeping them on the picket lines six weeks into their strike.
Union Pacific dropped 4.9% after the railroad reported slightly weaker profit and revenue than expected.
Such losses helped to overshadow Tesla’s jump of 21.3% after the electric-vehicle maker reported better profit for the latest quarter than analysts expected. An optimistic CEO Elon Musk also predicted 20% to 30% sales growth next year, though its revenue for the latest quarter fell short of analysts’ forecasts.
UPS climbed 4.9% after likewise topping analysts’ forecasts for profit. The package-delivery company’s finances can offer a window into the strength of the economy because of how many different types of customers it serves, and its revenue edged past expectations.
ServiceNow, whose platform helps companies automate and connect processes, was another one of the strongest forces pushing upward the S&P 500. It jumped 4.5% after delivering stronger profit and revenue than expected, driven by interest by customers to incorporate artificial-intelligence technology.
Stocks have broadly regressed this week after the S&P 500 and Dow both set records at the end of last week. They’ve been hurt by rising Treasury yields in the bond market, which can make investors less willing to pay high prices for stocks. Critics had already been saying beforehand that stocks looked too expensive given how much faster their prices have risen than corporate profits.
Yields have climbed as report after report has shown the U.S. economy remains stronger than expected. That’s good news for Wall Street, because it bolsters hopes the economy can escape from the worst inflation in generations without the painful recession that many had worried was inevitable.