Stock market near record highs as S&P 500 sets record 5 days in a row

The S&P 500 edged 0.2% lower in afternoon trading after setting a record high for five straight days. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 18 points, or 0.1%, as of 2:25 p.m. Eastern time, and the Nasdaq composite was 0.4% lower.

Intel’s drop of 12.1% was dragging on the market even though the chip company reported stronger profit for the last three months of 2023 than analysts expected. Its forecasts for revenue and profit for the start of 2024 fell short of Wall Street’s estimates.

Visa also sank, down 1.7%, despite reporting better results than expected. Analysts called the figures solid but highlighted how the company described some slowing trends for January so far.

The U.S. stock market is nevertheless closing out another winning week as reports keep suggesting inflation is cooling while the economy continues to power higher. The unexpected backdrop has hopes high that Wall Street’s dream scenario can come true: one where a resilient economy drives profits higher for companies, while inflation moderates enough to get the Federal Reserve to cut interest rates many times this year.

The latest report on Friday showed the measure of inflation the Fed prefers to use behaved just about exactly as expected in December. Overall inflation by that measure was 2.6% during the month, matching November’s rate.

The Fed pays more attention to the inflation figure after ignoring prices for food and fuel, which can zigzag sharply month to month. That figure cooled to 2.9% from 3.2% and was a bit better than economists expected.

At the same time, spending by U.S. consumers strengthened by more in December than expected. That helped calm worries that a resilient U.S. economy, which has so far refused to fall into a long-predicted recession, would mean upward pressure on inflation.

The hope is still for…