Financial Markets                      07/02 15:28

   

   NEW YORK (AP) -- U.S. stocks ticked higher on Wednesday to hit another 
all-time high.

   The S&P 500 rose 0.5% and set a record for the third time in four days. The 
Dow Jones Industrial Average edged down by 10 points, or less than 0.1%, and 
the Nasdaq composite gained 0.9%.

   Tesla helped drive the market higher and rose 5% after saying it delivered 
nearly 374,000 of its Model 3 and Model Y automobiles last quarter. That was 
better than analysts expected, though the electric-vehicle maker's overall 
sales fell 13% from a year earlier.

   Worries have been high that CEO Elon Musk's involvement in politics is 
turning off potential Tesla buyers.

   Constellation Brands climbed 4.5% despite reporting a weaker profit for the 
latest quarter than analysts expected. It pointed to slowing growth for jobs in 
the construction industry and other "4000 calorie+" sectors, which tends to 
hurt demand for its beer.

   But the company selling Modelo beer and Robert Mondavi wine nevertheless 
stuck with its financial forecasts for the full upcoming year.

   They helped offset a 40.4% drop for Centene. The health care company 
withdrew its forecasts for profit this year after seeing data that suggests 
worse-than-expected sickness trends in many of the states where it does 
business. It was the worst day for the stock since its debut in 2001.

   All told, the S&P 500 rose 29.41 points to 6,227.42. The Dow Jones 
Industrial Average slipped 10.52 to 44,484.42, and the Nasdaq composite climbed 
190.24 to 20,393.13.

   In the bond market, Treasury yields were mixed ahead of a highly anticipated 
report on Thursday, which will show how many jobs U.S. employers created and 
destroyed last month. The widespread expectation is that they hired more people 
than they fired but that the pace of hiring slowed from May.

   A stunningly weak report released Wednesday morning raised worries that 
Thursday's report may fall short. The data from ADP suggested that U.S. 
employers outside the government cut 33,000 jobs from their payrolls last 
month, when economists were expecting to see growth of 115,000 jobs.

   "Though layoffs continue to be rare, a hesitancy to hire and a reluctance to 
replace departing workers led to job losses last month," according to Nela 
Richardson, chief economist at ADP.

   The ADP report does not have a perfect track record predicting what the U.S. 
government's more comprehensive jobs report will say each month. That preserves 
hope that Thursday's data could be more encouraging. But a fear has been that 
uncertainty around President Donald Trump's tariffs could cause employers to 
freeze their hiring.

   Many of Trump's stiff proposed taxes on imports are currently on pause, and 
they're scheduled to kick into effect in about a week. Unless Trump reaches 
deals with other countries to lower the tariffs, they could hurt the economy 
and worsen inflation.

   Trump said on Wednesday that he reached a deal with Vietnam, where U.S. 
products sold in the country will face zero tariffs and Vietnamese-made goods 
will face a U.S. tariff of 20%. That helped companies that import lots of 
things from Vietnam, including Nike, whose stock rose 4.1%. Factories in 
Vietnam made half of all Nike brand footwear in its fiscal year of 2024.

   Other factors could also be dragging on the job market, such as the U.S. 
government's termination of protected status for 350,000 Venezuelans, 
potentially exposing them to deportation. That alone could create a drag on 
payrolls of 25,000 jobs, according to Goldman Sachs economist David Mericle, 
whose forecast for Thursday's report is weaker than many of his peers.

   The yield on the 10-year Treasury rose to 4.28% from 4.26% late Tuesday.

   The two-year Treasury yield, which more closely tracks expectations for what 
the Federal Reserve will do with its overnight interest rate, held steady at 
3.78%.

   An unexpected weakening of the job market could push the Fed to cut interest 
rates in order to give the economy a boost. So far this year, the Fed has said 
it would rather wait to see how Trump's tariffs affect the economy and 
inflation before cutting rates any further.

   Trump, meanwhile, has angrily been calling for cuts to rates to happen 
sooner.

   In stock markets abroad, indexes were mixed as the deadline approaches for 
when Trump's tariffs will come off their pause.

   France's CAC 40 rose 1%, and Hong Kong's Hang Seng gained 0.6%. But Japan's 
Nikkei 225 fell 0.6%, and South Korea's Kospi dropped 0.5%.

   ___

   AP Writers Teresa Cerojano and Matt Ott contributed.

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