Stock market today: Wall Street drifts as the Trump trade cools

A pair of traders work in their booth on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange, Thursday, Nov. 7, 2024. (Richard Drew / The Associated Press)

U.S. stocks are drifting Tuesday as some momentum comes out of the torrid "Trump trade" that swept Wall Street following Donald Trump's presidential victory.

The S&P 500 was 0.2 per cent lower in morning trading, coming off its latest all-time high. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 139 points, or 0.3 per cent, as of 10:45 a.m. EST, and the Nasdaq composite was virtually unchanged.

Stocks have been broadly rising on expectations that Trump's preference for lower tax rates and other policies will mean faster economic growth, as well as bigger U.S. government debt and higher inflation. Some areas of the market have launched on particularly high-grade fuel, such as smaller U.S. stocks seen as benefiting the most from Trump's America First ideas.

They gave back some of their big gains on Tuesday, and the Russell 2000 index of smaller companies slipped 0.7 per cent. Even Tesla, which is run by Trump's ally Elon Musk, sank. It fell two per cent and was on track for its first loss since before Election Day last week.

The stock that's become most entwined with Trump's popularity, Trump Media & Technology Group, fell 8.6 per cent.

Helping to offset such losses was Live Nation Entertainment, which joined the lengthening list of U.S. companies delivering stronger profit for the summer than analysts expected. The company behind Ticketmaster said concert fans around the world are spending more to hear artists, and it said trends are already encouraging for 2025 stadium tours for Coldplay and others. Its stock rose 3.5 per cent.

Tyson Foods jumped 9.9 per cent after likewise topping analysts' forecasts for profit. The producer of beef, chicken and pork also raised its dividend for investors.

Home Depot pulled back 0.7 per cent despite beating analysts' profit expectations, as it continues to contend with a pullback in spending by customers.

Mosaic fell 6.5 per cent after the producer of crop fertilizers reported weaker profit and revenue for the latest quarter than analysts expected. It also named a new chief financial officer.

In the crypto market, bitcoin soared to another record before pulling back. Trump has embraced cryptocurrencies generally and pledged to make his country the crypto capital of the world. Bitcoin got as high as US$89,995, according to CoinDesk, before dropping back toward US$86,000. It started the year below US$43,000.

In the bond market, Treasury yields rallied as trading of U.S. government bonds resumed following Monday's Veterans Day holiday.

The yield on the 10-year Treasury climbed to 4.37 per cent from 4.31 per cent late Friday.

Treasury yields have climbed sharply since September, in large part because the U.S. economy has remained much more resilient than feared. The hope is that it can continue to stay solid as the Federal Reserve continues to cut interest rates in order to keep the job market humming, now that it's helped get inflation nearly down to its two per cent target.

Some of the rise in yields has also been because of Trump. He talks up tariffs and other policies that economists say could drive inflation and the U.S. government's debt higher, along with the economy's growth.

Traders have already begun paring forecasts for how many cuts to rates the Fed will deliver next year because of that. While lower rates can boost the economy, they can also give inflation more fuel.

The next update on inflation will arrive on Wednesday, when the U.S. government gives the latest reading on prices that U.S. consumers are paying. Economists expect it to show inflation accelerated a bit to 2.6 per cent in October from 2.4 per cent the month before. But they're looking for underlying inflation trends, which ignore prices for groceries and fuel that can jump sharply from month to month, to stay steady at 3.3 per cent.

In stock markets abroad, indexes fell across much of Europe and Asia. Hong Kong's Hang Seng dropped 2.8% for one of the worst falls. The Hang Seng closed below the 20,000 level for the first time since China announced a stimulus package in September.