Wall Street drifts to a mixed finish after Micron soars and Apple drops

The U.S. stock market ended mixed Thursday as Micron Technology surged 15.7% on strong earnings and AI demand, while Apple dropped 6.1% after raising product prices. The S&P 500 slipped less than 0.1%, the Dow added 71 points, and the Nasdaq fell 0.5%.

NEW YORK AP — The U.S. stock market meandered to a mixed finish Thursday after several artificial-intelligence stocks https://apnews.com/article/tech-stocks-ai-investments-8a0ff4c95d5cae6f65c6e2ba03047058 veered back up their roller-coaster ride https://apnews.com/article/stocks-markets-us-iran-war-oil-spacex-03c6efaefd208a4b68679cdccde51cf9 , while Apple dropped after hiking prices on many of its products. The S&P 500 finished nearly unchanged with a dip of less than 0.1% after swinging between gains and losses throughout the day. The Dow Jones Industrial Average added 71 points, or 0.1%, and the Nasdaq composite fell 0.5%. Micron Technology helped lead the market after jumping 15.7%. The maker of computer memory reported much bigger profit and revenue for the latest quarter than analysts expected, and it gave a stronger growth forecast for the current quarter than Wall Street expected. That helped allay worries a bit that its stock had grown too expensive after coming into the day with a surge of 267% so far this year. Micron and AI stocks broadly have been under pressure recently https://apnews.com/article/stocks-markets-us-iran-war-oil-spacex-03c6efaefd208a4b68679cdccde51cf9 because of worries that their profits can't possibly keep pace with the tremendous rallies for their stock prices https://apnews.com/article/stock-markets-iran-nvidia-energy-oil-ba4257d9938ef6aea558db3010b4a53f . But beyond Micron, Qualcomm said late Wednesday that the acceleration of the AI era is forcing it to upgrade forecasts for its own growth in upcoming years. They're the latest signals of the deluge of dollars heading into AI data centers https://apnews.com/article/economy-gdp-consumer-spending-trump-iran-war-a3ecd4459a091458fd9b61772d79b7da and other investments. Qualcomm said it expects its revenue outside of handsets, including data centers, to hit $40 billion in its fiscal year of 2029, roughly double its prior target. Qualcomm's stock rose 3.8%. But all the strong demand for computer memory and storage that's driving profits and stock prices higher for producers is also leading to higher costs for customers. Apple on Thursday raised prices https://apnews.com/article/apple-mac-ipad-price-increase-neo-fe95fe57dfa9b4a9917d68df5dcfe0e3 for many of its products, including increases of 15% to 20% for Mac computers, according to analysts. Its stock slumped 6.1% and was the single heaviest weight on the S&P 500. SpaceX, meanwhile, fell 1% to drop below $153 for its lowest finish since its ballyhooed debut https://apnews.com/article/musk-spacex-tesla-ipo-trillionaire-billionaire-worth-rockets-7723f82b6063a9a17c194e25982cd66d on the Nasdaq earlier this month. All told, the S&P 500 slipped 0.73 to 7,357.49 points. The Dow Jones Industrial Average added 71.72 to 51,960.62, and the Nasdaq composite fell 118.03 to 25,358.60. In the bond market, Treasury yields eased to lessen the pressure on stocks and other investment prices. They regressed after a report showed inflation is behaving pretty much as economists expected https://apnews.com/article/inflation-federal-reserve-spending-d9348cc01b41c8de31051acf1b39268f . The report said that a measure of inflation hitting U.S. consumers accelerated to 4.1% last month from 3.8% in April, but the hope is that inflation is set to ease because of a drop-off in oil prices.