Stock market today: Wall Street edges back from its record

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The S&P 500 dropped 0.3% the day after it had reached a record high. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 140 points, or 0.3%, and the Nasdaq composite decreased 0.5%.

When concerns die down, such as after last week's positive news about inflation, bond yields have decreased and have helped stocks to go up.

For large U.S. companies, the stronger stock market has also received a boost. Even though rising Treasury yields might push their stock prices downward, they can still mitigate the impact by generating bigger profits.

''If 2024 was the election year, 2025 is the earnings year,'' says Brian Jacobsen, chief economist at Annex Wealth Management. ''Earnings have been fundamentally improving, but how long can that last and how much can they rise?''

Texas Instruments dropped 7.5% despite the company announcing a profit for its latest quarter that was higher than what analysts had predicted.

A sign that companies are under significant pressure to keep growing is reflected in analysts' downbeat expectations about how much profit the company is expected to make per dollar of revenue in the first three months of 2025. This pessimistic forecast has sent stock prices plummeting across the semiconductor industry.

The results matched analysts' expectations. However, its revenue for the final three months of 2024 slightly fell short of analysts' forecasts due to effects from hurricanes.

On the winning end of Wall Street were Novo Nordisk's U.S.-listed shares, which surged 8.5%. The Danish company announced the results of a clinical trial for a treatment aimed at helping people who are overweight or obese, which could lead to increased profits down the line.

NextEra Energy rose 5.2% after the owner of Florida Power & Light revealed a quarterly profit margin slightly higher than expected. The company's CEO, John Ketchum, stated that his company is benefiting from a surge in electricity demand.

Verizon Communications gained 0.9%. It came in with the latest quarter's results, which exceeded analysts' forecasts, largely due to rising prices from recent quarters, and indeed introduced a strategy to aid businesses in utilizing artificial intelligence.

In total, the S&P 500 decreased by 17.47 points to 6,101.24. The Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 140.82 to 44,424.25, and the Nasdaq composite fell 99.38 to 19,954.30.

In the bond market, the interest rate on the 10-year government bond fell to 4.61% from 4.65% late on Thursday. Other interest rates also decreased after a couple of economic reports from the U.S. indicated worse than expected results.

One feeling among U.S. consumers is weaker than economists had expected and decreased in January for the first time in six months. The decline was broad-based, affecting various income levels, levels of wealth, and age groups, according to Joanne Hsu, director of the Surveys of Consumers at the University of Michigan.

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If they're correct, this would be the first time the Fed has met since starting to lower the federal funds rate in September, in an effort to ease the burden on the US economy. Cutting interest rates can stimulate investment prices, but it can also give inflation a boost. And concerns are growing about stubborn inflation, as well as the potential impact of tariffs and other policies advocated by President Donald Trump.

Stock market indexes overseas were mixed, with some unfortunate declines in both Europe and Asia.

The rate increased to about 0.5% from 0.25%, as expected. This is the highest level for the rate since 2008. The Bank of Japan has ended a long period of extremely low interest rates meant to encourage borrowing and spending.

Stocks rose 1.9% in Hong Kong and 0.7% in Shanghai for some of the biggest gains in global markets.

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Writers Matt Ott and Zimo Zhong contributed.