Stocks end higher on Wall Street as Big Tech climbs

Stocks capped another wobbly day of trading on Wall Street with more gains Thursday, as strength in technology and health care companies outweighed a pullback elsewhere in the market.

The S&P 500 eked out a 0.3% gain, good enough for its third straight all-time high. The benchmark index managed to end higher despite a majority of its companies closing lower. Gains for several big technology stocks, including Apple, countered weakness in chipmakers, industrial firms and energy companies. Treasury yields rose and crude oil prices fell.

Stocks wobbled between small gains and losses for much of the day in quiet trading as investors weighed a mix of new economic data showing jobless claims fell last week and inflation at the wholesale level jumped more than expected last month.

“The market is a little sleepy today,” said Greg Bassuk, CEO of Axs Investments. “Investors are looking to hang their hat on some outsized economic data that can give more certainty around the extent to which the economy is opening up.”

The S&P 500 rose 13.13 points to 4,460.83. The Dow Jones Industrial Average also recovered from an early slide to gain 14.88 points, or less than 0.1%, to 35,499.85. The blue-chip index also set its third record high in three days.

The tech-heavy Nasdaq added 51.13 points, or 0.3%, to 14,816.26. Small-company stocks fell, dragging the Russell 2000 index down 6.27 points, or 0.3%, to 2,244.07.

Investors worked through a mixed picture of economic data Thursday. The Labor Department said that jobless claims fell to 375,000 from 387,000 the previous week, another sign that the job market is healing from the pandemic.

At the same time, inflation at the wholesale level jumped a higher-than-expected 1% in July, matching the rise from the previous month, and dimming...