Wall Street Holds Steady Near Records  10/21 09:33

   The U.S. stock market is holding near its record heights on Tuesday as the 
floodgates open for companies reporting how much profit they made during the 
summer.

   NEW YORK (AP) -- The U.S. stock market is holding near its record heights on 
Tuesday as the floodgates open for companies reporting how much profit they 
made during the summer.

   The S&P 500 was essentially unchanged in early trading and is sitting just 
0.2% below its all-time high set earlier this month. The Dow Jones Industrial 
Average was up 5 points, or less than 0.1%, as of 9:35 a.m. Eastern time, and 
the Nasdaq composite was 0.1% lower.

   General Motors rallied 10.2% after reporting stronger quarterly results than 
analysts expected, while also raising its forecasts for some full-year 
financial targets. CEO Mary Barra said it's moving quickly to reduce its losses 
in 2026 and beyond for its electric-vehicle business, as "it is now clear" that 
EV adoption will be lower than planned.

   Halliburton, the services provider for oil and gas producers, and Danaher, 
the life sciences and diagnostics company, also jumped to gains of at least 8% 
after delivering better profit for the latest quarter than analysts expected. 
Coca-Cola gained 3.4%, and GE Aerospace flew 4.2% higher after they likewise 
topped Wall Street's profit expectations.

   Warner Bros. Discovery jumped 10.6% after the company, which has already 
said it would split Discovery Global off Warner Bros., said it's considering 
other options that could be more profitable for shareholders. The company said 
it made the move after hearing from "multiple parties" interested in either the 
entire company or Warner Bros.

   They helped offset a drop for PulteGroup, which fell 4.1% even though the 
homebuilder delivered a stronger profit than analysts expected. Northrop 
Grumman slipped 2.3% after its revenue for the latest quarter fell short of 
analysts' forecasts.

   Several Big Tech stocks lost momentum, taking a break from their own 
rallies, and kept the market in check. A 1.3% drop for Google parent Alphabet 
from its all-time high was the single heaviest weight on the S&P 500.

   Other big recent winners in financial markets also took a pause. The price 
of gold fell 3.3% from its latest record, dropping back to $4,215.60 per ounce. 
It's still up nearly 60% for the year so far.

   The pressure is on companies to show that their profits are growing 
following a torrid rally of 35% for the S&P 500 from a low in April. It's one 
way they can justify their high stock prices amid criticism that they're too 
expensive.

   Corporate earnings reports also have gained importance because they provide 
details on the strength of the U.S. economy when the U.S. government's shutdown 
has delayed important economic updates. That's making the job of the Federal 
Reserve more difficult, as it tries to decide whether high inflation or the 
slowing job market is the bigger issue for the economy.

   Despite the shutdown, the Commerce Department will release its consumer 
prices report on Friday, which could help guide the Fed's interest rate policy. 
It's the government's first data release since the shutdown began on Oct. 1.

   In stock markets abroad, indexes rose across much of Europe and Asia.

   Japan's Nikkei 225 added 0.3% and crept closer to the 50,000 level as 
conservative lawmaker Sanae Takaichi became the country's prime minister. 
Investors expect her to push for lower interest rates and other policies that 
could help the market.

   Indexes rose 1.4% in Shanghai and 0.7% in Hong Kong amid expectations that 
President Donald Trump will meet with Chinese President Xi Jinping later this 
month during a regional summit. That's raised hopes for an easing of trade 
tensions between the world's biggest economies.

   In the bond market, the yield on the 10-year Treasury eased to 3.95% from 
4.00% late Monday.