Kamal Ghorui
US stocks were largely directionless on Thursday, trading close to record highs as investors sifted through mixed earnings from some of Wall Street’s most influential companies, while gold surged further in an extraordinary safe-haven rally.The S&P 500 edged up by less than 0.1% and hovered near its all-time high set earlier this week. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 162 points, or 0.3%, while the Nasdaq composite slipped 0.6%, weighed down by losses in large technology stocks, AP reported.Technology shares drove much of the divergence. Microsoft slumped 10.4% despite reporting stronger-than-expected profit and revenue for the latest quarter. Investors instead focused on the company’s rising capital expenditure, concerns over the pace of growth in its Azure cloud business, and uncertainty around how quickly its artificial-intelligence push will translate into sizeable profits.Helping to offset that drag was Meta Platforms, which jumped 8.6% after beating profit expectations, even as it signalled continued heavy investment in AI.Elsewhere, Tesla traded lower by 0.7% after an initially positive reaction to its results. While the automaker posted profits above estimates, earnings were sharply lower than a year earlier. Chief executive Elon Musk urged investors to look beyond weak car sales and focus on longer-term bets such as robotaxis and robotics.IBM rose 7.1% after topping profit and revenue forecasts, while Southwest Airlines surged 9.7% despite missing profit estimates, after issuing a strong outlook for 2026 driven by operational changes such as baggage fees and assigned seating. On the downside, ServiceNow slid 9.2% even after delivering better-than-expected quarterly profits, as investors continued to trim positions following a strong run earlier in the year.The most dramatic moves were again seen in commodities. Gold jumped another 4.5% to $5,579 an ounce, extending a rally that has seen the metal gain more than 25% so far this year and roughly double over the past 12 months. Prices have climbed sharply as investors seek safety amid concerns over lofty equity valuations, geopolitical risks, tariff threats and heavy government debt burdens.The US dollar weakened slightly against major currencies, continuing a broader downtrend driven by similar concerns. In the bond market, Treasury yields were steady, with the 10-year yield holding at 4.26%.Markets also digested the Federal Reserve’s decision on Wednesday to pause further interest-rate cuts after three reductions late last year, as inflation remains above the central bank’s 2% target.Overseas, stock markets rose across much of Europe and Asia. South Korea’s Kospi gained 1% to another record, helped by strong advances in chipmaker SK Hynix.
