Financial Markets                      09/22 15:38

   

   NEW YORK (AP) -- The U.S. stock market held near its 
https://apnews.com/article/stock-markets-ai-semiconductors-fed-energy-3a23f22469
cd0e0062f711096906525c on Tuesday after 
https://apnews.com/article/stocks-markets-rates-oil-energy-trump-xi-1f1a267bf455
6c01513f506914eb6359.

   The S&P 500 was virtually unchanged, edging down by less than 0.1%, and is 
sitting 0.4% below its all-time high set last month. The Dow Jones Industrial 
Average dipped 185 points, or 0.4%, while the Nasdaq composite added 0.5% to 
its own record.

   Stocks had been higher in the morning, when the price for a barrel of Brent 
crude briefly fell below $98. But oil prices later trimmed their losses, and 
Brent settled at $99.25 per barrel, down 1.1%.

   That's down from the nearly $110 that it touched last week, but it's still 
much more expensive than the $72 it was fetching before 
https://apnews.com/hub/iran began. It's been swinging with uncertainty about 
when the war will allow https://apnews.com/hub/strait-of-hormuz again from the 
Middle East to customers worldwide.

   On Wall Street, AutoZone rose 3.3% after the retailer reported a stronger 
profit for the latest quarter than analysts expected, though its revenue fell 
short. CEO Phil Daniele said the auto parts seller faced "a difficult selling 
environment" in the first two months of the quarter, but it improved afterward 
and "we feel we are well positioned for sales growth" in its upcoming fiscal 
year.

   At Thor Industries, which sells recreational vehicles, the mood was more 
muted. CEO Bob Martin said expensive fuel, high 
https://apnews.com/article/federal-reserve-warsh-trump-inflation-bab1bcb07e973bf
b2dd0c3e5fbbb73b1 and 
https://www.google.com/goto?url=CAESoAEB6zswFdyGMNzM7Ubt2hrHaR96mTFM1dKppMdjJnQ4
SDZatIYWKhsOomOQMFV2dRpO73vI39t7CaIDx5wtuVTFSd_d9VfUf4-vEkK8U9v0veq3yLaUr1cPhvX5
MEIQvOdLok9QOAdIEissZLlmnby6YOvC9D7M6eJxHXUoPIQ-MQ2_wJqiL6Hu7TsmjmIVEs4hlEKFwD1D
IT939SBMIvMP are stretching its customers' budgets, and business "never reached 
the inflection point many in the industry expected" in its latest fiscal year.

   Its stock rose 5.5%, though, after it delivered a stronger profit for the 
latest quarter than analysts expected.

   Such strong profit reports are one of the main reasons the U.S. stock market 
has reached the brink of its all-time high despite expensive oil and jitters 
about whether stocks in the artificial-intelligence industry shot too high.

   Many companies are close to closing the books on their third quarter of the 
year, which ends with September. And analysts are forecasting companies in the 
S&P 500 will report overall growth of nearly 29% for the quarter from a year 
earlier, according to FactSet.

   If they're right, it would be the third straight quarter of growth better 
than 25% for the index. And stock prices tend to follow the track of corporate 
profits over the long term.

   On Holding's stock climbed 7.6% after the Swiss sneaker and sportswear 
company unveiled its financial goals for upcoming years. It also approved a 
plan to buy back up to $1 billion of its stock through 2029. Such purchases 
send cash directly to investors and boost the company's per-share performance.

   On the losing end of Wall Street were several stocks of companies in the oil 
and gas industry, which were hurt by the drop in crude prices. ConocoPhillips 
fell 1.8%.

   Banks also dropped, continuing their weak run since last week, when the 
Federal Reserve raised the overnight interest rate that it controls for the 
first time in three years. When the spread narrows between short-term interest 
rates and longer ones, banks come under pressure because they make profit off 
the difference.

   JPMorgan Chase fell 3.4% and was one of the heaviest weights on the S&P 500.

   The gap between short- and long-term yields in the bond market did not move 
much Tuesday, and the 10-year Treasury yield edged down to 4.95% from 4.96% 
late Monday.

   All told, the S&P 500 inched down by 0.06 to 7,764.64 points. The Dow Jones 
Industrial Average dropped 185.14 to 51,863.69, and the Nasdaq composite rose 
122.18 to 27,244.28.

   In stock markets abroad, indexes ticked higher across much of Europe and 
Asia. London's FTSE 100 was an outlier and dipped 0.3%.

   Stocks rose 0.2% in Hong Kong and 0.1% in Shanghai after Alibaba unveiled 
new https://apnews.com/hub/artificial-intelligence chip technologies, including 
what it said was China's most powerful AI chip. That comes just days ahead of 
https://apnews.com/article/trump-xi-summit-tensions-ai-competition-e560910c897fe
db0448eda4cdbfdbaea at which competition to lead on AI technology is expected 
to be a major theme.

   ___

   AP Business Writer Yuri Kageyama contributed to this report.

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