US stocks and bonds drift following the latest update on inflation, while oil prices fall

NEW YORK (AP) — The U.S. stock market is drifting Wednesday after a report said inflation last month was a touch worse than economists expected. The bond market held relatively steady following some brief swings, while oil prices continued to drop.

The S&P 500 edged down by 0.1% but remains near its all-time high set earlier this month. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 43 points, or 0.1%, following the first few minutes of trading, and the Nasdaq composite was 0.2% lower.

Wall Street is making relatively few big moves ahead of an earnings report coming from its most influential stock, Nvidia, after trading ends for the day. Expectations are once again high for the chip giant, whose tremendous growth in profit because of the artificial-intelligence boom has made it the largest stock by value in the U.S. market.

AI stocks have become shakier through the summer on worries that their prices shot too high and that demand for chips may fizzle out if AI does not produce as much profit as hoped. That has anticipation high to see what kind of forecast Nvidia gives for upcoming revenue.

Strong profit growth across U.S. companies broadly has been the main reason the U.S. stock market has run to records this year.

Abercrombie & Fitch leaped 26.2% after reporting much stronger profit for the latest quarter than analysts expected. Growth was so strong that the retailer raised its forecast for earnings over the full year, as well as for how much cash it will send to investors by buying back shares of its own stock.

J.M. Smucker climbed 6.3% after likewise reporting sweeter results than analysts expected for the spring. The seller of Folgers coffee and Smucker’s jams also raised its forecast for profit over the full year.

On the losing end of Wall Street was Intuit, even though the company behind TurboTax, Credit Karma and QuickBooks topped analysts’ profit expectations in the latest quarter. It fell 3% after giving a forecast for profit growth of nearly 25% in its upcoming fiscal year, which fell short of analysts’ expectations.

Outside of earnings reports, Meta Platforms climbed 2.7% after agreeing to pay $17 billion and add child-safety measures to Facebook and Instagram to end a landmark trial over teen social media addiction and settle claims filed by states across the country.

In the bond market, which has been home recently to some of Wall Street’s strongest action, Treasury yields edged higher following the reports on inflation and economic growth.

Yields have shot higher through the summer on worries about high inflation and the U.S. government’s growing and gargantuan debt, along with other factors. They got so high that the U.S. Treasury Department made a surprise announcement last week to intervene in the market, though analysts say its effect could be limited.

The latest update on Wednesday said that the measure of inflation the Federal Reserve has historically preferred to use sat at 3.7% last month. That was the same rate of inflation as in June and slightly worse than the 3.6% that economists expected, according to FactSet. It remains far worse than the 2% goal the Fed has set.

Growth in spending by U.S. consumers, which is the main engine of the economy, slowed at the same time.

The overall economy grew at a 1.5% annual pace in the spring, according to a revised estimate of its performance, the same amount as the government’s first estimate.

It all helped Treasury yields squiggle up and down before the 10-year Treasury yield climbed to 4.65%, up from 4.64% late Tuesday.

Helping to restrain the climb in yields was another drop for oil prices, which tempered worries about upcoming inflation a bit.

The price for a barrel of Brent crude, the international standard, fell 1.8% to $85.70. It’s been swinging sharply through the summer on uncertainty about when the war with Iran will allow oil tankers to freely exit the Persian Gulf again.

In stock markets abroad, indexes rose modestly across much of Europe and Asia.

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AP Business Writers Yuri Kageyama and Michelle Chapman contributed to this report.