NEW YORK (AP) โ U.S. stocks are falling near record levels Monday as they head into the home stretch of what looks to be their latest winning month.
The S&P 500 rose 0.2% in early trading after closing last week at its latest all-time high. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 67 points, or 0.2%, as of 9:35 a.m. ET, and the Nasdaq composite was up 0.1%.
Berkshire Hathaway was helping support the market after Warren Buffett's company reported stronger end-2023 results than analysts expected. Class B shares of the company, whose subsidiaries include GEICO, Fruit of the Loom and Brooks running shoes, rose 2.7%.
But the famous investor also warned shareholders not to expect more โsurprising returnsโ because there are no offers available in the market of a large enough size to make a significant difference. Buffett is known for buying companies when they are cheap.
This follows broader criticism from some financial analysts that prices across Wall Street have risen too much in their big run since Halloween.
The S&P 500 is on track to close out its fourth straight month of gains, and is coming off its 15th winning week in the last 17. The rally began in October amid hopes that inflation is cooling enough for the Fed to Federal cut interest rates several times. times this year. Such cuts would ease pressure on the economy and financial system, while raising investment prices.
Expectations that rate cuts will eventually occur are still high, but traders have been pushing back their forecasts for later in the year following some better-than-expected reports on the economy. However, that data also raises hopes that companies' earnings growth could strengthen, which also helps stock prices.
Domino's Pizza jumped 8.5% after reporting earnings for the final three months of 2023 that beat analysts' expectations.
Amazon shares were little changed after they officially joined the Dow Jones Industrial Average. Replaced Walgreens Boots Alliance.
Last week, the stock received a big boost after another spectacular report from Nvidia added more momentum to the frenzy that has already built up around artificial intelligence technology. Nvidia, whose chips help power artificial intelligence technologies, rose another 1.7% on Monday, and is already up nearly 62% so far this year.
The earnings reporting season for the big S&P 500 companies is coming to a close, but this week still offers updates from several big names. They include several that could shed light on how well American household spending is holding up. That spending has been one of the main reasons the U.S. economy has outperformed expectations of a possible recession.
Best Buy, Lowe's and TJX, the parent company of TJ Maxx and Marshalls, will report this week. So will several large tech-related companies, including Salesforce.com and HP.
Regarding the economic calendar, the US government will give the latest update on Thursday on the inflation measure that the Federal Reserve prefers to use. Generally it is a report of less impact, because the data on inflation at the consumer and wholesale level for the month has already been published.
But those reports were more positive than economists expected, which could lead to more volatility this time around. The hope on Wall Street is that inflation will continue to cool quickly enough to convince the Federal Reserve to start cutting rates in June.
Bond yields remained relatively stable, helping to keep the stock market calm. The 10-year Treasury yield was at 4.25%, where it was late Friday.
In foreign stock markets the indices were mixed. Japan's Nikkei 225 added 0.3% to set another record after recouping the last of the losses suffered in the bursting of its economic "bubble" in late 1989.
Stocks fell in much of the rest of Asia and moved only modestly in much of Europe.
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AP Business writers Yuri Kageyama and Matt Ott contributed.
