Wall Street pulls near its all-time high

NEW YORK (AP) — U.S. stocks rose near their record levels on Wednesday as mixed data on the economy kept alive hopes that a cut to interest rates is coming soon.

The S&P 500 gained 0.3% and pulled within 0.6% of its all-time high set in late October. The Dow Jones Industrial Average climbed 408 points, or 0.9%, and the Nasdaq composite added 0.2%.

The biggest jump in the S&P 500 came from Microchip Technology, which leaped 12.2% after saying it expects sales and profit for the final months of the year to come in at the high end of the forecasted ranges it earlier gave. CEO Steve Sanghi said business is doing better than expected, and it’s reducing inventory levels.

Marvell Technology was another winner and rose 7.9% after the supplier of semiconductor products delivered a stronger profit for the latest quarter than analysts expected. CEO Matt Murphy credited demand for its data center products, while also announcing a purchase of Celestial AI to bolster its artificial-intelligence infrastructure business. The deal’s price tag could top $3.25 billion.

Stocks broadly got a lift from easing Treasury yields in the bond market. Yields fell after a report suggested U.S. employers outside of the government may have cut more jobs in November than they added.

While the surprisingly weak report from ADP may be discouraging for people looking for jobs, it also bolstered expectations that the Federal Reserve will cut its main interest rate next week. If the Fed does, that would be the third cut of the year in hopes of helping the slowing job market.

Investors love lower interest rates because they boost prices for investments and can charge up the economy.

A separate report Wednesday on activity for U.S. services business was more encouraging. It said growth was stronger last month than expected for businesses in the retail, finance, insurance and other industries.

The report from the Institute for Supply Management’s survey also said that prices were increasing at their slowest rate since April. That’s important because the main argument against cutting interest rates is that it could worsen inflation.

The yield on the 10-year Treasury fell to 4.06% from 4.09% late Tuesday.

Lower interest rates can boost prices for all kinds of investments, and bitcoin climbed above $93,000 following its scary downward run in recent weeks. It briefly plunged below $81,000 last month.

On Wall Street, American Eagle Outfitters rallied 15.1% after the retailer reported a better profit than expected. Its CEO, Jay Schottenstein, said it also saw a strong start to the holiday shopping season with an acceleration in demand across its brands during the Thanksgiving weekend.

Capricor Therapeutics surged 371.1% after the biotech company reported encouraging results for its potential therapy for people with Duchenne muscular dystrophy.

On the losing end of Wall Street were relatively few companies, including one out of every three stocks in the S&P 500 index. But among them were some of the market’s most influential stocks, which kept indexes in check.

Microsoft fell 2.5% and was the heaviest weight on the S&P 500.

Macy’s lost 1.1% after flipping between losses and gains through the day. It reported a profit for the latest quarter that was much better than the loss that analysts were expecting, but its stock had already come into the day with a gain for the year so far that more than doubled the S&P 500’s.

All told, the S&P 500 rose 20.35 points to 6,849.72. The Dow Jones Industrial Average added 408.44 to 47,882.90, and the Nasdaq composite gained 40.42 to 23,454.09.

In stock markets abroad, indexes were close to flat in Europe following a mixed finish in Asia.

Japan’s Nikkei 225 jumped 1.1% on gains for technology stocks like Tokyo Electron. SoftBank Group Corp. leaped 6.4% following reports that its founder, Masayoshi Son, regretted having to sell shares in computer chipmaker Nvidia to help pay for other investments.

Chinese indexes sank following the release of data showing weaker factory activity. Stocks fell 1.3% in Hong Kong and 0.5% in Shanghai.

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AP Business Writers Matt Ott and Elaine Kurtenbach contributed.