US stocks tick higher on rate cut hopes; earnings in spotlight
ADVERTISEMENT The S&P 500 was inching up by 0.1% in early trading, coming off its best day since May, which followed its worst day since May. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 77 points, or 0.2%, as of 9:35 a.m. Eastern time, and the Nasdaq composite was 0.1% higher.
Worries are still high that President Donald Trump's tariffs may be hurting the economy. But increased hopes for cuts to interest rates by the Federal Reserve later this year, along with a stream of stronger-than-expected profit reports from U.S. companies, are helping to support the market.
Palantir Technologies helped lead the way after the provider of artificial-intelligence platforms reported a stronger profit for the latest quarter than analysts expected. The AI darling also raised its forecast for revenue over the full year, and its stock climbed 7.5% after it had already doubled for the year so far coming into the day.'We continue to see the astonishing impact of AI leverage,' CEO Alex Karp said.DuPont rose 4.5% after the chemical company likewise topped analysts' expectations for profit and revenue. It also raised its forecast for profit over the full year, even though it's expecting to take a $20 million hit because of tariffs in the second half of 2025.
ADVERTISEMENT They helped to offset a 0.7% slip for Yum Brands after the company behind KFC, Taco Bell and Pizza Hut reported results for the latest quarter that came up just short of analysts' expectations.Hims & Hers Health tumbled 12.2% even though the telehealth company reported a profit that topped analysts' expectations. Its revenue fell short of forecasts.
ADVERTISEMENT The pressure is on companies to report bigger profits after the U.S. stock market surged to record after record from a low point in April. The big rally fueled criticism that the broad market had become too expensive.For stock prices to look like better bargains, either companies need to produce bigger profits, or interest rates need to fall. The latter may happen in September, when the Federal Reserve has its next meeting.
ADVERTISEMENT Expectations have built sharply for a rate cut at that meeting since a report on the U.S. job market Friday came in much weaker than economists expected. Lower interest rates would make stocks look less expensive, while also giving the overall economy a boost, but the potential downside is that they could push inflation higher.Treasury yields sank sharply after Friday's release of the jobs report, and they haven't recovered. The yield on the 10-year Treasury was holding at 4.22%, where it was late Monday and down from 4.39% just before the release of the jobs report.
ADVERTISEMENT In stock markets abroad, indexes rose across much of Europe and Asia.
India's Sensex was an outlier and dipped 0.4% on concerns over trade tensions with the United States as the Trump administration pushes for cutbacks in the country's oil purchases from Russia.
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