Wall Street hangs near its all-time high as calm continues to hold

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NEW YORK (AP) — The U.S. stock market is holding near its records on Thursday, continuing its relatively calm run following weeks of sharp and scary swings.

The S&P 500 was virtually unchanged in midday trading and remains just 0.6% below its all-time high. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 9 points, or less than 0.1%, as of 11 a.m. Eastern time, and the Nasdaq composite was 0.1% lower.

Dollar General helped lead the market and rallied 11.2% after reporting a stronger profit for the latest quarter than analysts expected. More customers shopped at its stores, and it also squeezed more profit out of each $1 in sales that it made.

Hormel rose 2.8% after likewise reporting a better profit than expected, thanks in part to strength for its Planters nuts and Jennie-O turkey offerings. It also gave a forecasted range for profit in the upcoming year whose midpoint was above analysts’ forecasts.

Salesforce, meanwhile, added 1.3% after swinging between gains and losses earlier in the morning. It delivered a better profit for the latest quarter than analysts expected, though its revenue fell just short.

CEO Marc Benioff extolled how Salesforce is “uniquely positioned for this new era” of artificial-intelligence technology, even if worries continue that all the world’s spending on AI may not end up worth it.

Besides such worries about potential overinvestment in AI, concerns about what the Federal Reserve will do with interest rates had sent U.S. stocks on sharp swings since it set its all-time high in late October.

After some back and forth, the general expectation on Wall Street is now that the Fed will indeed cut its main interest rate next week in hopes of shoring up the slowing job market. If it does, that would be the third such cut this year.

Investors love lower interest rates because they boost prices for investments and can juice the economy. The downside is that they can worsen inflation, which remains above the Fed’s 2% target.

But Treasury yields ticked higher on Thursday following another rise for Japanese government bonds. Expectations for a coming Fed cut to rates also took a very slight hit after reports suggested the U.S. job market may be a bit better than expected.