Wall Street ticks higher with hopes for coming cuts to interest rates

NEW YORK (AP) — Wall Street is drifting higher on Thursday as the countdown ticks to an update on the U.S. job market coming Friday, one that could clear the way for the cuts to interest rates that investors love.

The S&P 500 rose 0.4% as it clawed back more of its losses since setting an all-time high last week. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 180 points, or 0.4%, as of 11:30 a.m. Eastern time, and the Nasdaq composite was 0.4% higher.

Stocks got some lift from easing pressure from the bond market, where Treasury yields fell following the latest reports on the U.S. job market to come in worse than economists expected. One report suggested employers, not including the government, nearly halved their hiring last month. Another said that more workers applied for unemployment benefits last week in an indication of rising layoffs.

Neither number is flashing a recession, and a third report on activity for businesses in the information and other services industries showed a stronger-than-expected acceleration of growth.

The upside for investors of a slowdown in the job market is that it could push the Federal Reserve to consider cutting its main interest rate for the first time this year at its next meeting in a couple weeks. Such cuts can give the economy and job market a kickstart, though they can also push inflation higher.

So far this year, the Fed has been keeping its main interest rate on hold because it’s been more worried about inflation potentially worsening because of President Donald Trump’s tariffs than about the job market.

“The year started with strong job growth, but that momentum has been whipsawed by uncertainty,” according to Nela Richardson, chief economist at ADP. She said several things could be behind the slowdown, including ”labor shortages, skittish consumers, and AI disruptions.”

A more comprehensive report on the job market’s health during August will arrive on Friday from the U.S. Labor Department, and it will likely carry much weight with the Fed. Ahead of it, the yield on the 10-year Treasury fell to 4.19% from 4.22% late Wednesday.

Last month’s grim jobs report, which included massive downward revisions for June and May, sent financial markets spiraling and prompted Trump to fire the head of the agency that compiles the monthly data.

On Wall Street, American Eagle Outfitters jumped 32.3% after the teen fashion retailer reported more than double the profit that analysts had expected for its latest quarter. It benefited from a frenzy of media attention in late July over a provocative advertising campaign featuring actor Sydney Sweeney.

The ads — which featured the tagline “Sydney Sweeney has great jeans” — sparked a debate about race, Western beauty standards, and the backlash to “woke” American politics and culture.

Hewlett Packard Enterprise added 5.2% following its own better-than-expected profit report.

T. Rowe Price climbed 6% after announcing a deal where Goldman Sachs plans to buy up to $3.5 billion of its stock, or up to 3.5% of all its shares. They’re teaming up to offer access to some of the private markets where Goldman Sachs is an expert to the retirement savers and other investors that T. Rowe Price serves. Goldman Sachs added 1.3%.

On the losing side of Wall Street was Salesforce, which was one of the heaviest weights on the market despite reporting a better profit than analysts expected. Analysts called the performance solid but suggested some of it may have come from one-time factors. Salesforce, which helps businesses manage their customers, slumped 5.8%.

C3.ai fell 3.2% after reporting a larger loss for the latest quarter than analysts expected. Chairman Thomas Siebel called the results “completely unacceptable,” while announcing a new chief executive for the company, Stephen Ehikian. He was most recently acting administrator of the U.S. General Services Administration.

Figma tumbled 17.9% even though the company, which offers a design and product development platform, reported results for the latest quarter that roughly matched analysts’ expectations. Its forecasts for upcoming revenue also came close to analysts’, but expectations may have been even higher given that its stock came into the day at more than double its $33 IPO price from July.

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

Indexes dropped 1.3% in Shanghai and 1.1% in Hong Kong but jumped 1.5% in Tokyo.