U.S. stocks inched to more records after oil prices fell back to where they were in mid-April.
The S&P 500 edged up by less than 0.1% Wednesday. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 0.4%, and the Nasdaq composite gained 0.1%. All three indexes set records.
Bath & Body Works and Abercrombie & Fitch both rallied after becoming the latest companies to deliver stronger profit reports for the start of 2026 than analysts expected. That's even though U.S. consumers have been getting more discouraged about inflation.
Stocks of oil-and-gas companies fell after oil prices dropped more than 4%. Treasury yields eased.
On Wednesday:
The S&P 500 rose 1.24 points, or less than 0.1%, to 7,520.36.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 182.60 points, or 0.4%, to 50,644.28.
The Nasdaq composite rose 18.55 points, or 0.1%, to 26,674.73.
The Russell 2000 index of smaller companies fell 0.60 points, or less than 0.1% to 2,919.94.
For the week:
The S&P 500 is up 46.89 points, or 0.6%.
The Dow is up 64.58 points, or 0.1%.
The Nasdaq is up 330.76 points, or 1.3%.
The Russell 2000 is up 50.72 points, or 1.8%.
For the year:
The S&P 500 is up 674.86 points, or 9.9%.
The Dow is up 2,580.99 points, or 5.4%.
The Nasdaq is up 3,432.74 points, or 14.8%.
The Russell 2000 is up 438.04 points, or 17.6%.
