Today’s stock market: Wall Street inches higher ahead of inflation report

Stocks rose on Wall Street as markets await a key inflation report. The S&P 500 rose 0.1% on Thursday. The Nasdaq composite rose 0.3 percent and the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 0.1 percent. Walgreens Boots Alliance sank more than 22% after reporting results that fell well short of forecasts and cut its outlook. The company said it could close hundreds more stores over the next three years. Treasury yields fell on the bond market. The government releases a closely watched inflation report on Friday, which could influence the Federal Reserve’s next move on interest rates.

THIS IS A HATE NEWS UPDATE. AP’s earlier story follows below.

Wall Street’s major stock indexes were barely moving in afternoon trade Thursday ahead of a key inflation report.

The S&P 500 was down less than 0.1 percent, and stocks in the benchmark index were roughly split between winners and losers. The index is near the all-time high set last week.

The Nasdaq composite rose 0.3 percent and is just below an all-time high. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 19 points, or 0.1%, as of 3:18 p.m. ET.

Walgreens Boosts Alliance fell 24.5% for the biggest decliner in the S&P 500. It reported results that missed forecasts and cut its outlook. The company said it could close hundreds more stores over the next three years.

Jeans maker Levi Strauss fell 16.1% after its latest quarterly revenue results fell short of analysts’ expectations, along with current earnings forecasts for the year.

Spice maker McCormick rose 3.8 percent for one of the biggest gains on the market after beating analysts’ earnings forecasts.

Chipmaker Micron Technology fell 5.7 percent after its latest forecast disappointed investors.

Treasury yields fell on the bond market. The 10-year Treasury yield fell to 4.29 percent from 4.33 percent late Wednesday. The two-year Treasury yield fell to 4.72 percent from 4.75 percent.

A government update said the US economy expanded at an annual pace of 1.4% from January to March. The figure is a slight revision from a previous estimate of 1.3%. This marks the slowest quarterly growth since spring 2022.

The report also backed up data from previous economic reports showing that consumers are being squeezed by persistent inflation and high interest rates. Consumer spending, which has fueled economic growth, rose just 1.5 percent, down from an initial estimate of 2 percent, according to the report.

The main takeaway from the report is that “the economy remained resilient in the first quarter, but private sector demand growth cooled led by greater consumer caution,” EY chief economist Gregory Daco said in a note.

Slowing consumer spending could help dampen inflation further, but too much of a slowdown could hit the economy harder. The Federal Reserve is trying to time its efforts to tame inflation back to its 2 percent target without slowing the economy so much that it slips into a recession.

The stock market was apathetic throughout the week ahead of the next influential inflation report on Friday. The government will publish the latest index of personal consumption expenditure, or PCE. It is the Fed’s preferred measure of inflation.

Economists expect the report to show a modest drop in inflation to 2.6 percent in May from 2.7 percent in April. That’s down from the PCE peak of 7.1% in mid-2022. Other measures of inflation, including the consumer price index, have eased significantly over the past two years.

The latest inflation updates could influence the central bank’s decision on when to start cutting interest rates, which remain at their highest level in 20 years and have a global impact. Wall Street is betting the central bank will start cutting interest rates at its September meeting.

Damian J. Troise and Alex Veiga, Associated Press