stock market hits record highs despite AI worries

NEW YORK — Wall Street set records on Thursday, even as a sell-off for Oracle and worries about a potential bubble in artificial-intelligence technology weighed on the market.

The S&P 500 inched up 0.2% and eked past its prior all-time closing high, which was set in October. The Dow Jones Industrial leaped 646 points, or 1.3%, to top its own record set last month. The Nasdaq composite lagged behind and slipped 0.3% because of the weakness for AI stocks.

It’s the latest return to records for the market following what had appeared to be a debilitating set of worries. Some of the most recent included concerns about what the Federal Reserve will do with interest rates and whether all the dollars flowing into AI chips and data centers will produce profits and productivity as prolific as proponents are promising.

Such worries sent Wall Street last month to some of its worst and scariest days since its sell-off during April, but it then got several boosts that helped it regain its footing. Key among them was a continuing parade of companies saying they’re making bigger profits than analysts expected. Stock prices tend to track with corporate profits over the long term.

The Fed also on Wednesday cut its main interest rate for the third time this year and indicated another cut may be ahead in 2026. Wall Street loves lower interest rates because they can boost the economy and send prices for investments higher, even if they potentially make inflation worse.

jobless aid applications rose to 236,000 last week

WASHINGTON — The number of Americans applying for unemployment benefits jumped last week, but remain in the same historically healthy range of the past few years despite growing concern over the health of the labor market.

U.S. jobless claim applications for the week ending Dec. 6 climbed by 44,000 to 236,000 from the previous week’s 192,000, the Labor Department reported Thursday. That’s more than analysts’ forecast of 213,000 new applications. The previous week’s figure, analysts say, was distorted by the Thanksgiving holiday.

Applications for unemployment aid are viewed as a proxy for layoffs and are close to a real-time indicator of the health of the job market.

Despite what on the surface appears to be a historically healthy job market, the Federal Reserve trimmed its benchmark lending rate by a quarter-point on Wednesday, its third straight cut.

Fed Chair Jerome Powell said the committee reduced borrowing costs out of concern that the job market is even weaker than it appears. While government data shows that the economy has added a sluggish 40,000 jobs a month since April, Powell said that figure could be revised lower by as much as 60,000.

Average U.S. long-term mortgage rate ticks up

The average rate on a 30-year U.S. mortgage edged higher this week, though it remains relatively near its low point so far this year.

The uptick brings the average long-term mortgage rate to 6.22% from 6.19% last week, mortgage buyer Freddie Mac said Thursday. A year ago, the rate averaged 6.6%.

Borrowing costs on 15-year fixed-rate mortgages, popular with homeowners refinancing their home loans, also rose this week. The rate averaged 5.54%, up from 5.44% last week. A year ago, it averaged 5.84%, Freddie Mac said.

Mortgage rates are influenced by several factors, from the Federal Reserve’s interest rate policy decisions to bond market investors’ expectations for the economy and inflation.

They generally follow the trajectory of the 10-year Treasury yield, which lenders use as a guide to pricing home loans. The 10-year yield was at 4.12% at midday Thursday, slightly higher than it was a week ago.

– Press Democrat news services