Gap, Nordstrom Nosedive After Weak Results

Wall Street capped another wobbly day of trading Wednesday with an uneven finish for the major stock indexes ahead of the Thanksgiving holiday. The S&P 500 rose 0.2% after wavering between small gains and losses most of the morning, the AP reports. The benchmark index regained its footing in the final hour of trading. The Dow Jones Industrial Average slipped less than 0.1% after having been down 0.6% in the early going. The Nasdaq rose 0.4%, getting a lift from a late-afternoon rally in technology stocks. The S&P 500 rose 10.76 points to 4,701.46. The index set an all-time high last Thursday. The Dow slipped 9.42 points to 35,804.38, and the Nasdaq gained 70.09 points to 15,845.23.

Investors kept an eye on the latest batch of quarterly report cards. Gap nosedived 24.1% after the clothing chain said supply chain problems crimped its third-quarter earnings and revenue. Department store operator Nordstrom plunged 29% after reporting weak third-quarter earnings. Computer maker HP rose 10.10% for the biggest gain in the S&P 500 after reporting solid financial results. Autodesk slumped 15.5% after the design software company warned investors the pace of its recovery is being impacted by supply chain problems and pressure from inflation.

Investors received several upbeat economic updates on Wednesday. The Commerce Department reported that the US economy slowed to a modest annual rate of 2.1% growth in the October-December quarter, slightly better than its first estimate. But economists are predicting a solid rebound in the current quarter as long as rising inflation and a recent uptick in COVID cases do not derail activity. The Labor Department reported that the number of Americans applying for unemployment benefits plummeted last week to the lowest level in more than half a century, another sign that the US job market is rebounding rapidly from last year’s coronavirus recession. (More stock market stories.)