NEW YORK (`) — U.S. stocks held relatively steady Tuesday as trading on Wall Street calmed down after some sharp recent swings.
The S&P 500 rose 0.3% in afternoon trading, snapping a strong three-day winning streak. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 79 points, or 0.2%, as of 1:34 p.m. Eastern time, and the Nasdaq Composite was 0.3% higher.
Kenvue, the company whose brands include Band-Aids and Tylenol, rose 6.6% after beating both analysts' profit and revenue forecasts in the latest quarter.
The Walt Disney Co. fell 9.8%, although results for the latest quarter were better than analysts expected. Revenue fell slightly short of forecasts and the company expects its entertainment streaming business to slow in the current quarter.
They are among the bottom performers of companies publishing their results for the first three months of the year. According to FactSet, most companies have beaten their earnings forecasts so far, but their stock prices won't rise as much as usual afterward. Additionally, companies that missed earnings expectations saw their share prices fall sharper the next day than in the past.
That could suggest that investors are listening to critics who generally say the U.S. stock market is too expensive after its record rise this year. In order for share prices to continue to rise, either profits must grow more dynamically or interest rates must fall.
The latter still appears to be a possibility on Wall Street after some events last week that traders found encouraging.
Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell strongly suggested that despite a series of interest rate cuts, the central bank is still closer to cutting than raising them stubbornly high readings on inflation this year. A Report of fewer than expected jobs This was suggested on Friday US economy could manage the balancing act of remaining solid enough to avoid a bad recession without being so strong that inflation remains too high.
After rising earlier this year as hopes of interest rate cuts by the Federal Reserve faded, Treasury yields have fallen this month to provide some relief to the stock market.
The yield on the 10-year Treasury note fell to 4.44% from 4.49% late Monday. The two-year yield, which is more closely aligned with Fed expectations, fell to 4.81% from 4.83%.
Although yields have fallen over the last week, strategists at Wells Fargo Investment Institute still expect long-term yields to remain high for a while. This is partly because inflation is widely expected to remain higher than hoped for some time. Luis Alvarado, global fixed income strategist, expects the 10-year yield to likely remain near its recent range.
On Wall Street, Crocs rose 5.9% after the stock reported better-than-expected earnings and sales. It benefited from strong international growth.
International Flavors & Fragrances, a company that makes food and fragrance ingredients, rose 5.1% after better-than-expected profit and sales. The company also expects full-year revenue to be at the upper end of the forecast range.
Lucid Group slumped 13.3% after the electric vehicle maker reported a deeper loss than analysts expected for its latest quarter.
Builders FirstSource fell 19.6% despite beating profit and revenue forecasts. The building products provider said a weakening multifamily housing market and higher mortgage rates created challenges, and its forecast for how much money it will make this year fell short of some analysts' expectations.
In overseas stock markets, indices rose 2.2% in Seoul and 1.6% in Tokyo, but were mixed across the rest of Asia. Australia's S&P/ASX 200 rose 1.4% afterward Central Bank decided to leave interest rates unchanged.
European stock indices also rose.
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` business reporters Matt Ott, Elaine Kurtenbach and Alex Veiga contributed.
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