Wall Street’s main indexes are mixed as investors assessed corporate earnings and awaited comments from US President Donald Trump to gauge what his trade policy might look like.
JPMorgan Chase and Goldman Sachs rose more than 1.0 per cent each, aiding the blue-chip Dow’s marginal gains.
The S&P 500 Banks index rose 1.1 per cent to hit a record high.
More broadly, investors took a pause after the S&P 500 and the Dow logged their sixth session of gains out of seven on Wednesday, with the benchmark index notching an intraday record high for the first time in over a month.
Trump’s private-sector $US500 billion ($A798 billion) investment announcement in AI infrastructure, along with Netflix’s strong results, provided the latest tailwind for markets which had been recovering since last week after data showed underlying inflation was cooling despite robust economic activity.
Following previous session’s strong gains, artificial intelligence darlings Nvidia dropped 1.4 per cent and Microsoft dipped 0.6 per cent.
Uncertainty about Trump’s trade plans prevailed as he said tariffs on imports from Canada, Mexico, China and the European Union could be announced on February 1, although analysts expect April 1 to be the date when major tariff plans will be unveiled.
All eyes will be on Trump’s virtual appearance at the World Economic Forum in Davos later on Thursday.
Trump pulled the US out of the OECD tax deal on Monday.
Tariff imposition could threaten a global trade war, add fuel to price pressures and slow down the Federal Reserve’s pace of monetary policy easing.
“Any country or any sector that has a large bilateral goods or trade imbalance is going to be certainly in the crosshairs and any country that is deemed to be a currency manipulator may be in the crosshairs,” Scott Ladner, chief investment officer at Horizon Investments, said.
Traders expect the Fed to leave interest rates unchanged for the first half of 2025, according to data compiled by LSEG.
A rise in longer-dated Treasury yields also limited gains among stocks.
On the economic data front, a Labor Department report showed weekly jobless claims stood at 223,000, compared with expectations of 220,000.
In early trading on Thursday, the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 77.68 points, or 0.18 per cent, to 44,234.41, the S&P 500 lost 3.29 points, or 0.05 per cent, to 6,083.25, and the Nasdaq Composite lost 72.01 points, or 0.36 per cent, to 19,937.14.
Six of the 11 S&P 500 sectors rose, with energy stocks up 0.8 per cent, after two straight sessions of declines.
GE Aerospace advanced 9.4 per cent after it forecast 2025 profit above estimates while American Airlines lost 8.3 per cent after forecasting 2025 profit below expectations.
Health insurer Elevance rose 1.4 per cent after beating estimates for fourth-quarter profit.
Electronic Arts was down 16.3 per cent after the video game publisher cut its forecast for annual bookings.
Declining issues outnumbered advancers for a 1.77-to-1 ratio on the NYSE and a 1.69-to-1 ratio on the Nasdaq.
The S&P 500 posted 15 new 52-week highs and four new lows while the Nasdaq Composite recorded 33 new highs and 54 new lows.