Wall Street breaks new records to close its last winning month

NEW YORK

Wall Street set new records Thursday as U.S. stocks closed out their latest winning month and quarter.

The S&P 500 added 5.86 points, or 0.1%, to its all-time high set the day before and closed at 5,254.35. That propelled its gain for the first three months of the year to a hefty 10.2%. The only quarter that was better in the last two years was the one before that.

The Dow Jones industrial average rose 47.29 points, or 0.1%, to 39,807.37 and also set a record. The Nasdaq Composite Index fell 20.06 points, or 0.1%, to 16,379.46. That's just below its own all-time high.

The stock market has been on an almost unstoppable run since late October, and the S&P 500 has just capped its fifth consecutive month of gains. It surged as the U.S. economy remained remarkably strong despite high interest rates aimed at keeping inflation in check. And as inflation hopefully continues to decline from its peak, the Federal Reserve has indicated it likely will. lower interest rates several times later this year.

Thursday was the last trading day for the U.S. stock and bond markets this month and quarter. Financial markets will be closed on Friday for Good Friday.

Most stocks soared higher during the quarter, driven by a group of companies riding Wall Street's continuing frenzy around artificial intelligence technology. Nvidia, whose chips are powering much of the AI ​​rush, jumped 82.5%.

The only S&P 500 stock doing better is Super Micro Computer, which just joined the index recently because it also got caught up in the AI ​​craze. The company, which sells servers and storage systems used in AI and other computing systems, saw its shares rise 255.3% during the quarter.

They more than offset the woes of companies such as Tesla and Boeing during the quarter. Tesla fell 29.3% to continue its volatility, after more than doubling last year. Boeing, meanwhile, sank 26% as concerns grew over its safety and manufacturing quality.

In the bond market, Treasury yields rose slightly Thursday after mixed reports on the economy.

One said the growth of the U.S. economy in the last three months of last year was stronger than previously expected. Another said fewer American workers applied for unemployment benefits last week, the latest indication of a strong job market.

Other reports have shown that U.S. consumer confidence is stronger than economists expected, but the Chicago area's manufacturing sector is contracting more than expected.

The 10-year Treasury yield rose from 4.19% to 4.20% Wednesday evening. The yield on the two-year Treasury note, which more closely tracks the Fed's expectations, rose to 4.62% from 4.57%.

On Wall Street, there is still hope that the Federal Reserve will start cutting its main interest rate in June. Lower interest rates ease pressure on the economy, while increasing investment prices. But progress in bringing inflation the bottom has become bumpier recently, with reports this year, I arrive hotter than expected.

A senior Federal Reserve official, Gov. Christopher Waller, said in a speech Wednesday evening that there was no urgency to cut the policy rate, given this data.

Indeed, this tells me that it is prudent to keep this rate at its current restrictive level perhaps longer than expected to help keep inflation on a sustainable path toward 2%, Waller said.

Besides interest rates staying higher for longer, critics say other threats could also derail stock market gains. Chief among them is that stock prices have been rising faster than corporate profits, making them expensive in some ways. Companies will need to generate solid profit growth to justify these measures.

On Wall Street, RH jumped 17.3% even though the home furnishings retailer reported lower profit and revenue for the latest quarter than analysts expected. It also said demand was trending upward and gave revenue forecasts for the coming year that were slightly higher than analysts' expectations.

Analysts said investors were ready to flock to signs of a recovery in the property market, with interest and mortgage rates expected to fall Later this year.

Chemours fell 9.1% despite its results for the last quarter being better than those expected by analysts. It gave a forecast for profit before taxes and other items for the current quarter that was lower than analysts' expectations. The company also said its board of directors had completed its internal reviews of accounting matters and had discovered certain weaknesses in its internal controls over financial reporting.

Trump Media & Technology Group was also a loser. The company behind former President Trump's Truth Social fell 6.4% after climbing more than 14% in each of the past two days. His stock has done well beyond what critics say is reasonable for the loss-making company, driven by Trump fans and investors hoping to profit from this mania.

In overseas stock markets, Tokyo's Nikkei 225 index fell 1.5% on speculation that Japanese authorities would take steps to support the value of the Japanese yen.

Movements were more modest across much of the rest of Asia and Europe.

Choe writes for the Associated Press. AP Staff Writer Elaine Kurtenbach contributed to this report.