Wall Street cruises to more records as PepsiCo and tech stocks rally
[July 18, 2025] By
STAN CHOE
NEW YORK (AP) — Wall Street rose to records on Thursday following
better-than-expected updates on the economy and a mixed set of profit
reports from big U.S. companies.
The S&P 500 climbed 0.5% to top its all-time high set a week ago. The
Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 229 points, or 0.5%, and the Nasdaq
composite added 0.7% to its own record set the day before.
Trading was calmer than Wednesday’s, when President Donald Trump jolted
financial markets by saying he had discussed the “concept” of firing the
chair of the Federal Reserve but was unlikely to do so. Such a move
could help Wall Street get the lower interest rates it loves but would
also risk a weakened Fed unable to make the unpopular moves needed to
keep inflation under control.
A strong profit report from Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co.
helped drive tech stocks, and its net income soared nearly 61% in the
last quarter from a year earlier. The chip maker said it’s seeing strong
demand from artificial-intelligence and other customers, and TSMC's
stock that trades in the United States rose 3.4%.
Other stocks involved in AI also climbed, and a 1% gain for Nvidia was
one of the strongest forces pushing upward on the S&P 500.
PepsiCo jumped 7.5% after delivering revenue and profit that topped Wall
Street’s expectations. The drink and snack giant also stood by its
financial forecasts given in April, which projected lower full-year
profit than previous forecasts due to increased costs from tariffs and a
pullback in consumer spending.
United Airlines flew 3.1% higher after reporting a stronger profit for
the latest quarter than analysts expected. It also said it’s seen an
acceleration in demand from customers that began in early July, and it’s
expecting less uncertainty about the economy to hurt its business in the
second half of this year.
Lucid Group’s stock surged 36.2% after it said Uber Technologies is
aiming to use 20,000 or more of its vehicles over six years in a
robotaxi program. Using an autonomy system by Nuro, it expects to launch
“later next year in a major US city.”
Uber, which plans to invest hundreds of millions of dollars in Lucid and
Nuro, saw its stock edge down by 0.3%.
On the losing side of Wall Street was Abbott Laboratories, which fell
8.5% despite delivering results for the latest quarter that edged past
analysts’ expectations. The health care company cut the top end of its
forecasted range for revenue growth over 2025.
Elevance Health dropped 12.2% after reporting a weaker profit than
analysts expected. It cut its forecast for profit in 2025 because of
rising medical cost trends in its Affordable Care Act business, along
with other factors.
All told, the S&P 500 rose 33.66 points to 6,297.36. The Dow Jones
Industrial Average gained 229.71 to 44,484.49, and the Nasdaq composite
climbed 153.78 to 20,885.27.
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Anthony Matesic works on the floor at the New York Stock Exchange in
New York, Wednesday, July 16, 2025. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig)
 In the bond market, Treasury yields
were mixed following several better-than-expected reports on the
economy.
One said that shoppers upped their spending at U.S. retailers by
more last month than economists expected. Such spending, along with
a relatively solid jobs market, has helped keep the U.S. economy out
of a recession.
A separate report said that fewer U.S. workers applied for
unemployment benefits last week, which could be a signal of limited
layoffs. A third suggested unexpectedly strong growth in
manufacturing in the mid-Atlantic region.
Such solid data could keep the Federal Reserve on pause when it
comes to interest rates. The Fed has been keeping rates steady this
year, after cutting them at the end of last year. The Fed’s chair,
Jerome Powell, has been insisting that he wants to wait for more
data about how Trump’s tariffs will affect the economy and inflation
before the Fed makes its next move.
That’s because while lower interest rates could goose the economy
and prices for investments, they would also give inflation more
fuel. And prices may already be starting to feel the upward effects
of tariffs.
Thursday’s strong economic helped push the two-year Treasury yield,
which closely tracks expectations for the Fed, up to 3.91% from
3.88% late Wednesday.
Longer-term Treasury yields held steadier, though, and the 10-year
yield edged down to 4.45% from 4.46%. The Fed has less influence
over these yields, where investors in the bond market carry more
sway.
Bond investors had briefly driven longer-term yields higher on
Wednesday, when fears were high that Trump may fire Powell. The
president has been angrily calling for Powell to cut interest rates,
and a less independent Fed may end up pulling short-term rates lower
in the near term. That could allow inflation to run higher in future
years. Longer-term yields then relaxed after Trump said he was
unlikely to fire Powell.
In stock markets abroad, indexes rose across much of Europe and
Asia.
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AP Business Writers Matt Ott and Elaine Kurtenbach contributed.
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