Financial Markets                      01/24 09:39

   

   NEW YORK (AP) -- U.S. stocks are drifting around a record on Friday as they 
head for the close of a second straight winning week.

   The S&P 500 was virtually unchanged in early trading, a day after setting an 
all-time high. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 70 points, or 0.2%, as 
of 9:35 a.m. Eastern time, and the Nasdaq composite was 0.1% higher.

   Helping to keep the stock market calm was a relatively steady bond market, 
which has been driving much of the action on Wall Street lately. When worries 
about inflation and the U.S. government's swelling debt have been on the rise, 
Treasury yields have climbed and helped knock down stock prices. When concerns 
ebb, such as after last week's encouraging update on inflation, yields have 
eased and helped stocks rise.

   A mostly encouraging start to the earnings reporting season for big U.S. 
companies has also helped prop up the stock market. Even if higher Treasury 
yields are pushing downward on stock prices, companies can make up for it by 
delivering bigger profits.

   "If 2024 was the year of the election, 2025 is the year of earnings," 
according to Brian Jacobsen, chief economist at Annex Wealth Management. 
"Earnings have been fundamentally improving, but how long can that last and how 
much can they rise?"

   Verizon Communications rose 2.5% and was one of the stronger forces pushing 
upward on the S&P 500 after it delivered results for the latest quarter that 
edged past analysts' expectations. It benefited in part from price increases 
imposed in recent quarters.

   Novo Nordisk's U.S.-listed shares jumped 9.7% after the Danish company 
reported results from a clinical trial of a treatment for people who are 
overweight or obese.

   On the losing end of Wall Street, Texas Instruments fell 6.2% despite 
reporting profit for the latest quarter that topped analysts' expectations. 
Showing how much pressure is on companies to keep growing, analysts focused on 
discouraging signals of how much profit the tech company is making from each $1 
of revenue.

   CSX sank 2.8% even though the railroad delivered a profit for the latest 
quarter that matched analysts' expectations. Its revenue for the last three 
months of 2024 just missed analysts' forecasts as it dealt with the effects of 
hurricanes.

   In the bond market, the yield on the 10-year Treasury held at 4.65%, where 
it was late Thursday.

   In stock markets abroad, indexes were mixed across Europe and Asia.

   Tokyo's Nikkei 225 edged down by 0.1% after the Bank of Japan raised its 
benchmark interest rate to about 0.5% from 0.25%, as widely expected. It is the 
highest level for the rate since 2008, as the Bank of Japan shifts out of a 
long spell of extreme low interest rates meant to spur more borrowing and 
spending.

   Stocks jumped 1.9% in Hong Kong and 0.7% in Shanghai for some of the bigger 
moves in global markets.

   ___

   AP Writers Matt Ott and Zimo Zhong contributed.

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