Stock market today: Stocks edge higher on Wall Street in muted trading

Stocks edged higher on Wall Street in what’s expected to be another quiet day between the Christmas and New Year holidays. The S&P 500 rose 0.2% in early trading Thursday. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 63 points or 0.2% and the technology-heavy Nasdaq rose 0.1%. Markets have held on to slight gains for the week so far, and the S&P 500 is hovering just below its all-time high set in January of 2022. The benchmark index is coming off its eighth straight winning week and is up more than 24% for the year.
Futures for the S&P 500 were virtually unchanged before the bell Thursday, while futures for the Dow Jones Industrial Average lost 0.1%. The tech-heavy Nasdaq rose nearly 0.3%.
Trading has been subdued in the last trading week of the year. The S&P 500 is coming off its eighth straight winning week and is hovering just below its all-time high set in January of 2022.
The final week of 2023 lacks any market-moving U.S. economic updates. Later Thursday, the government releases data on layoffs in its weekly unemployment benefits report.
Overall, investors have been encouraged by financial data showing inflation is on the decline and the economy appears to be stronger than anticipated. The Fed is walking a tightrope, trying to slow the economy enough through higher interest rates to cool inflation, but not so much that it tips the nation into recession.
Recent data raises hopes that the economy can dodge a significant recession. Wall Street is betting that the Fed is done raising interest rates and will likely shift to rate cuts in the new year. The central bank has held rates steady since its meeting in July, and Wall Street expects it to start cutting rates as early as March.
In Europe at midday, Britain’s FTSE 100 inched down 0.1% and Germany’s DAX lost 0.2%. The CAC 40 in Paris was down 0.4%.
Tokyo’s Nikkei 225 index was an outlier in Asia, shedding 0.4% to 33,539.62. Speculation over whether and when the Bank of Japan might ease its longstanding lax monetary policy and raise its key interest rate from minus 0.1% has kept stocks wobbling in the world’s third-largest economy.
BOJ policymakers are waiting to see what sort of wage gains might come in 2024 as part of the central bank’s strategy of keeping credit easy to try to spur stronger growth.