Chief Financial Officer John David Rainey pointed to โthe range of near-term outcomes being exceedingly wide and difficult to predict,โ though the company did say it expects sales to grow between 3.5 per cent and 4.5 per cent, not including the swings that shifting values of foreign currencies can bring.
The nationโs largest retailer also said that it must raise prices due to higher costs caused by Trumpโs tariffs.
Equipment maker Deere said itโs seeing โnear-term market challengesโ and called the situation โdynamic,โ as many other companies have. It lowered the bottom end of its forecasted range of profit for the full year. But Deereโs stock nevertheless rose 3.8 per cent after it reported a stronger profit for the latest quarter than analysts expected.
Cisco Systems was another winner and rose 4.8 per cent after the tech giant likewise topped expectations for profit. Analysts said theyโre optimistic about Ciscoโs artificial-intelligence prospects.
Elsewhere on Wall Street, Dickโs Sporting Goods tumbled 14.6 per cent after it said it would buy the struggling Foot Locker chain for $US2.4 billion ($3.8 billion). Dickโs also said that it made a better profit for the latest quarter than analysts expected.
Foot Locker soared 85.7 per cent after coming into the day with a loss of nearly 41 per cent for the year so far.
All told, the S&P 500 rose 24.35 points to 5,916.93. The Dow Jones Industrial Average added 271.69 to 42,322.75, and the Nasdaq composite fell 34.49 to 19,112.32.
In the oil market, crude prices sank roughly 2 per cent on expectations that more petroleum could be set to flow into global markets because of a possible deal between the United States and Iran over that countryโs nuclear program. Such a deal could help ease sanctions against Iran, which is a major producer of oil.
Elsewhere, China moved to reverse some of its โnon-tariffโ measures against the US as agreed with Washington in their temporary trade war truce, while demanding that the US side โimmediately correct its wrong practices.โ
A Chinese Commerce Ministry spokesperson accused the Trump administration of violating world trade rules by announcing that use of Ascend computer chips made by Chinaโs Huawei Technologies violates US export controls.
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Stock indexes fell 0.8 per cent in Hong Kong and 0.7 per cent in Shanghai, while indexes were mixed elsewhere in Asia and Europe.
In the bond market, the yield on the 10-year Treasury fell to 4.44 per cent from 4.53 per cent late Wednesday. Falling bond yields can encourage investors to pay higher prices for stocks and other investments.
The two-year Treasury yield, which more closely tracks expectations for Fed action, dropped to 3.96 per cent from 4.05 per cent as traders built bets that the Fed will resume cutting its main interest rate as soon as September.
The Fed has been keeping its main interest rate on hold this year as it waits to see how Trumpโs trade policies play out for the economy. Cutting rates would juice the economy by making it easier for US households and companies to borrow and spend. But it would also push upward on inflation when worries are high that Trumpโs tariffs will do the same thing.
Fed Chair Jerome Powell warned in a speech on Thursday that the world โmay be entering a period of more frequent, and potentially more persistent, supply shocksโ that could goose inflation higher and present a โdifficult challenge for the economy and for central banks.โ
AP
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