Stock market today: Wall Street is rising again to record highs

NEW YORK (AP) — Wall Street is rising back to its record highs in early trading. The S&P 500 rose 0.3% early Thursday, closing in on the record it set earlier this week. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 95 points, or 0.2%, above its all-time high set the previous day, and the Nasdaq Composite was 0.3% higher. Nvidia and other chip industry companies led the way after global heavyweight Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. reported higher profit than analysts expected. Treasury yields in the bond market rose following recent encouraging reports on the US economy.

This is a recent update. AP's earlier story follows below.

Wall Street was on track to open with gains on Thursday, another big day for corporate earnings and the latest government economic data.

Futures for the S&P 500 rose 0.4% premarket, while futures for the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 0.1%. Nasdaq futures showed a 0.8% rise.

Shares of Elevance Health slid 12.3% after the health insurer missed Wall Street's third-quarter profit forecasts and warned that rising medical costs threatened to weigh on future earnings.

Railroad operator CSX slumped 4.7% in extended trading after saying Wednesday it expects only modest volume growth for the rest of the year as the Southeast recovers from two major hurricanes.

The Jacksonville, Florida-based railroad reported earnings per share for its latest quarter that were lower than analysts had forecast and said it expects its fourth-quarter results to fall by $50 million as it was hit by the Tracks damaged by Hurricanes Helene and Milton repaired.

Expedia shares rose 6.7% after the Financial Times reported that ride-hailing app Uber was considering a takeover bid for the travel booking site.

Taiwan Semiconductor rose 9.6% after third-quarter sales and profit beat analysts' forecasts. The company also provided upbeat fourth-quarter guidance, buoyed by expected demand for artificial intelligence-related products.

Government reports on retail sales and layoffs will follow later Thursday morning. Retail sales are expected to rise for a third straight month while layoffs are expected to rise again, suggesting the labor market is weakening further under pressure from elevated interest rates.

European stocks rose on expectations that the European Central Bank will cut borrowing costs.

The ECB's interest rate council, which sets interest rates for the 20 countries that use the euro, is expected to cut its key interest rate from 3.5% to 3.25% after figures showed inflation was at its lowest across the bloc has fallen for more than three years and economic growth is slowing.

Germany's DAX gained 0.6% and the CAC 40 in Paris gained 0.8%. Britain's FTSE 100 rose 0.3% to 8,367.96.

In Asian trading, Chinese markets fell after officials in Beijing said the government would expand financing for housing projects to reverse a slump in the property market triggered by a crackdown on excessive borrowing by developers.

Hong Kong's Hang Seng fell 1% to 20,079.10, while the Shanghai Composite Index fell 1.1% to 3,169.38.

China will release its economic growth data for the April-September quarter on Friday. Economists forecast annual growth of about 4.5%, below the government target of about 5%.

China's leaders have promised further measures to stimulate the economy, but have so far given no details on stimulus measures on a scale that would satisfy investors hoping for reforms to address longer-term problems such as massive local debt and weak consumer demand could tackle.

In Tokyo, the Nikkei 225 index fell 0.7% to 38,911.19 after the government said in September that Japan's exports fell 1.7% from a year earlier, widening the country's trade deficit.

South Korea's Kospi slipped less than 0.1% to 2,609.30 and in Australia the S&P/ASX 200 gained 0.9% to 8,355.90.

Taiwan's Taiex gained 0.2% and India's Sensex lost 0.6%. In Thailand, the SET rose 0.7% a day after the central bank cut its key interest rate by a quarter of a percentage point to 2.25%.

Oil prices rose early Thursday. It has declined after a recent rise as fears fade that Israel will attack Iranian oil facilities in retaliation for the Iranian missile attack earlier this month. Iran is a major crude oil producer and a strike could affect its exports to China and elsewhere. Concerns about the strength of demand due to slowing economic growth in China have also impacted oil prices.

U.S. benchmark crude oil rose 7 cents to $70.46 a barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Brent crude, the international standard, rose 8 cents to $74.30 a barrel.

The dollar fell to 149.55 Japanese yen from 149.64 yen. The euro rose from $1.0862 to $1.0864.

Elaine Kurtenbach and Matt Ott, The Associated Press