Stock market today: Stocks edge higher on Wall Street in muted trading

Stocks rose on Wall Street on what is expected to be another quiet day between the Christmas and New Year holidays. the&The P 500 rose 0.2% in early trading on Thursday. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 63 points, or 0.2%, and the tech-heavy Nasdaq rose 0.1%. Markets have held onto slight gains for the week so far, and the S&The P 500 sits just below its all-time high set in January 2022. The benchmark index is coming off its eighth consecutive week of gains and is up more than 24% for the year.

THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. AP’s previous story follows below.

Futures for the S&The P 500 was virtually unchanged before the bell on Thursday, while Dow Jones Industrial Average futures lost 0.1%. The tech-heavy Nasdaq rose nearly 0.3%.

Trading has been subdued in the last trading week of the year. the&The P 500 is coming off its eighth consecutive winning week and sits just below its all-time high set in January 2022.

The final week of 2023 lacks market-moving US economic updates. Later Thursday, the government releases data on layoffs in its weekly unemployment benefits report.

Investors have generally been encouraged by financial data showing that inflation is declining and the economy appears to be stronger than expected. The Federal Reserve is walking a tightrope, trying to slow the economy enough through higher interest rates to cool inflation, but not enough to tip the nation into recession.

Recent data raises hopes that the economy can avoid a significant recession. Wall Street is betting that the Federal Reserve will no longer raise interest rates and will likely move on to cutting them in the new year. The central bank has held rates steady since its July meeting, and Wall Street expects it to begin cutting rates as early as March.

In Europe at midday, Britain’s FTSE 100 was down 0.1% and Germany’s DAX lost 0.2%. The CAC 40 in Paris fell 0.4%.

Tokyo’s Nikkei 225 index was an outlier in Asia, losing 0.4% to 33,539.62. Speculation over whether and when the Bank of Japan might ease its long-loose monetary policy and raise its key interest rate from -0.1% has kept stocks reeling in the world’s third-largest economy.

BOJ officials are waiting to see what kind of wage increases could come in 2024 as part of the central bank’s strategy to keep credit easy to try to spur stronger growth.

In Hong Kong, the Hang Seng Index rose 2.5% to 17,043.53 thanks to heavy buying in technology and property stocks. With Thursday’s gains, it is down about 8% so far this year as China’s economy has faltered despite the country’s reopening after it eased COVID-19 precautions.

Shares of e-commerce giant Alibaba gained 2.8% even after a New York court refused to dismiss a lawsuit brought against it by a US company, Kelly Toys Holdings, for allegedly selling counterfeit versions of toys from Squishmallow plush.

The Shanghai Composite Index rose 1.4% to 2,954.70.

South Korea’s Kospi advanced 1.6% to 2,655.28 and the S&The P/ASX 200 in Australia rose 0.7% to 7,614.30.

India’s Sensex gained 0.4% and the Bangkok SET also rose 0.4%.

In other trading Thursday, U.S. benchmark crude oil lost $1.03 to $73.04 per barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. On Wednesday it fell $1.46.

Brent crude, the international standard, fell 96 cents to $78.58 a barrel.

The US dollar fell to 140.82 Japanese yen from 141.84 yen. Expectations of a change in the BOJ’s stance have given the yen renewed strength, while hopes of an easing of US interest rates have weakened the dollar, which is trading at its lowest level against the yen since July.

The euro rose to $1.1117 from $1.1106.

On Wednesday, the S&The P 500 rose 0.1%. It has increased 24% in the year. The Dow Jones rose 0.3%, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq composite rose 0.2%. It has outperformed other major indices with a 44% gain this year.