Wall Street pushes to more records as profits keep piling up for U.S. companies

NEW YORK (AP) — The U.S. stock market is pushing to more records Thursday as companies like Dollar Tree, Snowflake and Hormel Foods keep piling up profits. That’s even as oil prices continue to swing and more data shows pressure building on the economy because of the war with Iran.

The S&P 500 added 0.4 per cent to its all-time high set the day before after drifting between small gains and losses earlier in the morning. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 9 points, or less than 0.1 per cent, as of 11:15 a.m. Eastern time, and the Nasdaq composite was 0.5 per cent higher after both indexes also set records the day before.

Even with worries about expensive oil and high inflation, the U.S. stock market has run to records largely because U.S. companies keep making more money. Stock prices tend to follow the path of corporate profits over the long term, and companies have been routinely topping analysts’ expectations for the first three months of 2026.

Dollar Tree’s stock soared 18.1 per cent after it became the latest to report fatter profit than analysts expected. CEO Mike Creedon said improved store conditions helped the retailer make more profit off each US$1 in sales during the latest quarter despite tariffs adding to its costs. The company also gave a forecast for profit over the full year that topped analysts’ expectations.

Kohl’s rallied 16.3 per cent after the retailer reported better results for the latest quarter than analysts had feared, while Best Buy climbed 15.9 per cent following its own better-than-expected profit report. Hormel Foods climbed 9.8 per cent after a strong performance for its Jennie-O ground turkey and exports of its Spam luncheon meat helped it report a better profit than analysts expected.

Snowflake rose 34.1 per cent after saying artificial intelligence continues to be a strong driver of its business, and profit and revenue for the latest quarter exceeded expectations.

They helped offset a dip for Marvell Technology, which fell 1.3 per cent after its profit for the latest quarter only matched analysts’ expectations. It also said AI is driving big revenue growth for it, particularly its data center business.

In the oil market, prices ticked higher following their latest U-turns. The price for a barrel of benchmark U.S. crude oil rose 1.2 per cent to US$89.76, but only after bouncing between US$87 and US$92. It’s been swinging as hopes rise and fall that the United States and Iran may reach a deal to reopen the Strait of Hormuz and get oil flowing again from the Persian Gulf to customers worldwide.

The latest threat to the ceasefire in the war came after U.S. Central Command said Kuwait had intercepted missiles launched by Iran late Wednesday night. That followed earlier “defensive” strikes by the U.S. military on missile launch sites and minelaying boats in southern Iran.

In the bond market, Treasury yields eased after a report said the measure of inflation that the Federal Reserve likes to use accelerated last month but was roughly within economists’ expectations.

The yield on the 10-year Treasury fell to 4.46 per cent from 4.48 per cent late Wednesday after giving up an earlier gain.

Data also showed how U.S. households are less able to save money, with the personal savings rate down to a four-year low of 2.6 per cent, “pointing up the financial pressure on lower- and middle-income families,” according to Gary Schlossberg, global strategist at Wells Fargo Investment Institute.

U.S. households have been saying they’re feeling discouraged about the economy and inflation, even as the stock market keeps chugging along.

High yields in bond markets  worldwide recently have threatened to slow economies and undercut prices for stocks and all kinds of other investments. High yields have already forced the average long-term U.S. mortgage rate to its most expensive level since last summer, and they could curtail companies’ borrowing to build the AI data centers that have supported the U.S. economy’s growth  recently.

A report on Thursday said the pace of sales of new U.S. homes unexpectedly slowed last month, as the weight of higher mortgage rates hurts the market.

In stock markets abroad, indexes dipped across much of Europe and Asia. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng fell 1.3 per cent for one of the world’s larger losses.

Stan Choe, The Associated Press. AP Business Writer Elaine Kurtenbach contributed to this report.