Wall Street rises ahead of bank earnings, Powell’s testimony this week

NEW YORK (AFP) – Stocks were mixed on Wall Street on Monday afternoon, hovering near last week’s record highs.

The S&P 500 was mostly unchanged. The Nasdaq Composite rose 0.3% and the Dow Jones Industrial Average gave up early gains and was down 49 points, or 0.3%, as of 12:03 p.m. ET.

Specialty glass maker Corning Inc. reported a 10.7% gain, one of the biggest gains in the market, after raising its sales forecast.

Shares of troubled planemaker Boeing rose 1 percent after it agreed to plead guilty to criminal fraud charges related to twin 737 Max crashes that killed 346 people. Government identifies company he violated the contract Which protected her from prosecution for over three years.

Entertainment giant Paramount Global The company’s shares fell 2.8% after the company agreed to merge with Skydance.

Traders are eagerly awaiting several earnings reports this week, including an update from Delta Air Lines due on Thursday.

JPMorgan, Citigroup and Wells Fargo are scheduled to report earnings on Friday. The latest news from the banks could give Wall Street a clearer picture of how consumers are coping with rising debt and whether banks are worried about payments and potential delays.

Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell will address Congress on Tuesday and Wednesday. The central bank kept its benchmark interest rate at its highest level in more than two decades to curb inflation.

The Fed aims to bring inflation down to 2% without slowing economic growth too much. Inflation is still weighing on consumers, but it is well below its peak of two years ago. Economic growth has slowed this year but remains relatively strong amid a strong job market and consumer spending.

The central bank will get more information on consumer inflation on Thursday. Wall Street expects the latest government report to show inflation falling to 3.1% in June from 3.3% in May.

A report on wholesale inflation, before costs pass on to consumers, is due on Friday.

Inflation appears to be stuck at around 3% by most measures. That has led to more caution from the Federal Reserve and a weakening of expectations about how many rate cuts it will make this year. Most experts expect the Fed to cut rates once this year, but not before September. The Fed will hold its next policy meeting later this month.

Treasury yields were relatively stable in the bond market. The yield on the 10-year Treasury note rose to 4.29% from 4.28% on Friday evening.

After this event, the mood on European stock markets was mixed. Elections in France The legislature was divided between the left, the centre and the far right, with no political faction coming close to gaining a majority.

Stock markets in Asia fell.

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AP Business journalists Zimu Zhong and Matt Ott contributed to this report.