By Sinéad Carew and Johann M Cherian
(Reuters) – The benchmark rose to a record high at the close on Thursday as investors weighed a mixed bag of corporate earnings and digested comments from President Donald Trump, including calls for lower interest rates and oil prices.
At the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, Trump demanded that OPEC lower oil prices and that central banks cut interest rates, while warning global business leaders that they would face tariffs on products made outside the US.
While investors have been wary of Trump’s comments on tariffs, “they like the idea of interest rates going down, oil prices going down,” said Lindsey Bell, chief strategist at 248 Ventures.
“Overall, the market is optimistic as it hears more about Trump’s policies. We’re just seeing a reflection of that optimism,” Bell said.
However, investors were concerned that the tariffs could add to inflationary pressures and slow the pace of interest rate cuts by the US central bank.
The Fed is expected to leave interest rates unchanged next week at its first policy meeting of the year.
Peter Tuz, president of Chase Investment Counsel in Charlottesville, Virginia, said the Fed is expected to base rate decisions on economic data rather than the president’s requests.
I don’t think the Fed will pay too much attention to that, Tuz said, referring to Trump’s comments on rates. “They look at the data and will make a decision based on what they see.”
Tuz saw Thursday’s moves as a mix of reactions to the earnings reports and new policies from the Trump administration.
All three major Wall Street indexes posted gains for the fourth day in a row.
The S&P 500 gained 32.34 points, or 0.53%, to 6,118.71. The S&P 500 posted its first record close since Dec. 6 after narrowly missing the milestone on Wednesday.
It rose 408.34 points, or 0.92%, to 44,565.07, and gained 44.34 points, or 0.22%, to 20,053.68.
All 11 S&P 500 sectors ended with gains, after mixed trading earlier.
The greatest progress was recorded in healthcare, with a growth of around 1.35%, followed by industry with a growth of 0.96%.
The S&P 500 bank index ended up 0.73% after touching a record high earlier in the day.
The utilities sector pared earlier gains to 0.47%. Power utilities outperformed after Trump told the World Economic Forum that the United States needs twice the energy it has to power its fast-growing artificial intelligence operations.
Constellation energy (NASDAQ: ) added 4.1% and AES (NYSE: ) Corp rose 3.6%, while Vistra Corp rose 2.7%.
Technology was the smallest gainer, adding just 0.12% after rising 2.5% on Wednesday following Trump’s announcement of a $500 billion private sector investment in artificial intelligence infrastructure.
In terms of economic data, a Labor Department report showed weekly jobless claims at 223,000, compared with expectations of 220,000.
In earnings, shares of GE Aerospace ended up 6.6% after it forecast 2025 profit above estimates, and shares of health insurer Elevance rose 2.7% after it beat estimates for fourth-quarter profit.
However, shares of Electronic Arts (NASDAQ: ) sank 16.7% after the video game publisher cut its forecast for annual bookings. Shares of American Airlines (NASDAQ: ) fell 8.7% after it forecast 2025 earnings below expectations.
On the US stock exchanges, 13.54 billion shares changed hands, which is below the average of 14.83 billion for the last 20 sessions.
Advances outnumbered decliners by a ratio of 1.45 to 1 on the NYSE where 255 new highs and 52 new lows were recorded.
On the Nasdaq, 2,584 advanced and 1,807 declined as advancing issues outnumbered declining ones by a ratio of 1.43 to 1. The S&P 500 posted 32 new 52-week highs and six new lows, while the Nasdaq Composite recorded 77 new highs and 116 new lows.
