Stock indexes ended mixed Wednesday on Wall Street, even as the market extended its winning streak to a third day and gains in technology companies pushed the Nasdaq to an all-time high.
The S&P 500 rose 0.5%, coming off the heels of a whiplash start to the year where its worst quarterly performance since 2008 gave way to its best quarter since 1998. Treasury yields and the price of oil rose. Stocks in Europe fell, while markets in Asia ended mixed.
Encouraging reports on the U.S. economy helped nudge the market higher. Investors continue to balance signs that the economy is improving after grinding nearly to a halt in the spring because of the coronavirus pandemic against worry that the number of new confirmed infections is surging in parts of the U.S. and other hot spots around the globe.
The S&P 500 gained 15.57 points to 3,115.86. The Nasdaq composite, which is heavily weighted with technology companies, climbed 95.86 points, or 1%, to 10,154.63, a record high.
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The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 77.91 points, or 0.3%, to 25,734.97. The index drifted between a gain of 206 points and a loss of 99 points. Small company stocks also fell. The Russell 2000 index dropped 14.05 points, or 1%, to 1,427.31.
Markets around the world rebounded last quarter on hopes that economies are beginning to pull out of the severe, sudden recession that struck after governments shut down businesses to slow the spread of the coronavirus.
In the United States, a report said that the manufacturing sector returned to growth last month, a much better reading than the slight contraction that economists were expecting.
Earlier, a separate report suggested private employers hired more workers than they cut in June. Payroll processor ADP also revised its previously reported numbers for May, saying that private employers actually added nearly 3.1 million jobs that month instead of cutting 2.8 million.
But the June growth in ADP's payroll report wasn't as strong as economists expected. The U.S. government's more comprehensive monthly jobs report will arrive today.
Communication sector stocks, which have benefited as people stuck at home spend more time online, helped lift the market Wednesday, offsetting losses in financial, energy and industrial companies. Netflix rose 5.7% and Facebook gained 4.6%. Amazon led the way higher among companies that rely on consumer spending. The stock climbed 4.4%.
Health care stocks also rose. Pfizer gained 4.6% after it and German biotech company BioNTech announced encouraging, preliminary data on their covid-19 vaccine candidate.
Meanwhile, Tesla surpassed Toyota as the most valuable global auto company. Shares in the electric car and solar panel maker rose 3.7%. Toyota sold more than 10.7 million vehicles worldwide last year, while Tesla sold only a fraction of that at 367,500.
The yield on the 10-year Treasury note rose to 0.68% from 0.65% late Tuesday. It tends to move with investors' expectations for the economy and inflation.
Benchmark U.S. crude oil for August delivery rose 55 cents to settle at $39.82 a barrel. Brent crude oil for September delivery rose 76 cents to $42.03 a barrel.
Information for this article was contributed by Tom Krisher and Yuri Kageyama of The Associated Press.
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