NEW YORK — U.S. stocks are drifting on Wednesday as Wall Street takes a pause from what seemed like a relentless rally.
The S&P 500 edged up by 0.1% in early trading, coming off its first loss in four days. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 152 points, or 0.3%, as of 9:35 a.m. Eastern time, and the Nasdaq composite was 0.1% higher. All three are near their all-time highs, which were set on Monday.
The U.S. stock market has been on a blistering run since hitting a low in April, fueled by hopes that President Donald Trump’s tariffs won’t derail global trade and that the Federal Reserve will cut interest rates several times to boost the U.S. economy. The big rally, though, has raised concerns that stock prices have shot too high and become too expensive, particularly if the Fed does not deliver as many cuts to rates as traders expect.
Moves on Wall Street Wednesday were again modest, and the market is in a relative lull with few reports on the economy or on corporate profits to drive trading.
Cintas fell 1.8% despite reporting slightly better profit and revenue for the latest quarter than analysts expected. The company provides work uniforms, restroom supplies and other products to its customers.
Lithium Americas soared 87.6% following reports that the U.S. government is considering taking an ownership stake in the Canadian company that’s developing a lithium project in Nevada with General Motors.
Lithium Americas, which is based in Vancouver, said it’s in talks with the U.S. Department of Energy and GM about drawing on a previously announced $2.26 billion loan from the government. The Energy Department is making “incremental requests” to add more conditions before Lithium Americas can make its first draw, among other things, the company said.
Under Trump, the U.S. government has already taken a 10% ownership stake in Intel, the struggling computer chip company.
In stock markets abroad, indexes were mixed in Europe and Asia. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng jumped 1.4%, and France’s CAC 40 fell 0.6% for two of the bigger moves.
In the bond market, the yield on the 10-year Treasury edged up to 4.13% from 4.12% late Tuesday.
AP Business Writers Matt Ott and Yuri Kageyama contributed.