Stock market today: Wall Street drifts as Oracle soars and banks and oil slump

NEW YORK (AP) — U.S. stocks drifted to a mixed finish on Tuesday following several weeks of sharp swings.

The S&P 500 rose 0.4% to pull within 3% of its record set in July. It flipped between small gains and losses through the day, but the moves were nothing like its careens since the summer, driven by worries about the slowing U.S. economy and whether coming cuts to interest rates will keep it out of a possible recession.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 92 points, or 0.2%, and the Nasdaq composite rose 0.8%.

Oracle jumped 11.4% to an all-time high and helped lead the market after delivering better profit and revenue for the latest quarter than analysts expected. Gains for several influential Big Tech stocks also helped drive indexes, including rises of 2.1% for Microsoft and 2.4% for Amazon.

But banks weighed on the market following discouraging comments from several executives at an industry conference.

JPMorgan Chase fell 5.2% after its chief operating officer said analysts’ expectations for an underlying measure of its profit may be “too high.” Goldman Sachs dropped 4.4% after its chief executive said its trading revenue for the current quarter is trending down at the moment. And Ally Financial sank 17.6% after its chief financial officer warned that borrowers are “struggling with a high inflation and cost of living and now, more recently, a weakening employment picture.”

Stocks of energy producers were also weak after oil prices fell. A barrel of Brent crude, the international standard, is near its lowest price since 2021, and it’s been sinking amid worries about how much fuel a fragile global economy will burn. That helped drag Exxon Mobil down 3.6% and Chevron down 1.5%.

All told, the S&P 500 rose 24.47 points to 5,495.52. The Dow dropped 92.63 to 40,736.96, and the Nasdaq composite added 141.28 to 17,025.88.

In the bond market, Treasury yields eased. The yield on the 10-year Treasury fell to 3.64% from 3.70% late Monday.

Like stocks, Treasury yields have been swinging sharply ahead of the Federal Reserve’s meeting next week, where the widespread expectation is for it to cut its main interest rate for the first time since the COVID crash of 2020.

The Fed is turning its focus away from stifling high inflation and toward protecting the economy. The debate on Wall Street is now focused on how much the Fed will cut the federal funds rate, which has been sitting at a two-decade high, and whether the easing will ultimately prove to be too late to prevent a recession.

Reports coming this week on inflation could influence the size of the Fed’s upcoming cuts. The worst case for the Fed would be if inflation were to reaccelerate when the job market is weakening, because helping either of those would require opposing moves.

On Wednesday, though, economists expect the latest report on inflation to show prices for U.S. consumers were 2.6% higher in August than a year earlier. That would be a slowdown from July’s inflation rate of 2.9%

Ahead of that will be Tuesday evening’s debate between Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump. Foreign-exchange strategists at Bank of America say it could be the next catalyst for the market.

The value of the U.S. dollar has increased against peers in the past when expectations for a Trump re-election have strengthened, among other moves that have come to be known as part of the “Trump trade,” due in part to his calling for tariffs. But economists are debating what impact either candidate’s proposed policies would ultimately have on the economy, and the bigger deal may be whether one party is able to sweep into control of both Congress and the White House.

Strategists at Wells Fargo Investment Institute are looking for gridlock to continue, with neither party getting big enough majorities to pass transformative legislation. Because of that, “we think the economy is much more likely to move markets than elections,” said Paul Christopher, head of global investment strategy, and Jennifer Timmerman, investment strategy analyst.

In stock markets abroad, indexes fell in much of Europe after finishing mixed in Asia. Stocks rose 0.2% in Hong Kong and 0.3% in Shanghai after China’s customs office reported the country’s exports grew for a fifth consecutive month, in a sign of growing demand abroad.

AP Business Writers Matt Ott and Yuri Kageyama contributed.

American flag hang from the front of the New York Stock Exchange on Tuesday, Sept. 10, 2024, in New York. (AP Photo/Peter Morgan)

Currency traders watch monitors at the foreign exchange dealing room of the KEB Hana Bank headquarters in Seoul, South Korea, Tuesday, Sept. 10, 2024. (AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon)

Currency traders work near a screen showing the Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI), top left, and the foreign exchange rate between U.S. dollar and South Korean won, top center, at the foreign exchange dealing room of the KEB Hana Bank headquarters in Seoul, South Korea, Tuesday, Sept. 10, 2024. (AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon)

Currency traders watch monitors near a screen showing the Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI) at the foreign exchange dealing room of the KEB Hana Bank headquarters in Seoul, South Korea, Tuesday, Sept. 10, 2024. (AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon)

NEW YORK (AP) — Sean “Diddy" Combs faces federal charges in New York, his lawyer said late Monday.

Details of the charges weren't immediately announced by prosecutors, but Combs' lawyer, Marc Agnifilo, issued a statement saying: “We are disappointed with the decision to pursue what we believe is an unjust prosecution of Mr. Combs by the U.S. Attorney’s Office.”

He added that Combs had gone to New York last week in anticipation of the charges being brought.

“He is an imperfect person, but he is not a criminal,” Agnifilo said.

Criminal charges would be a major but not unexpected takedown of one of the most prominent producers and most famous names in the history of hip-hop.

The federal investigation of the 58-year-old Combs was revealed when Homeland Security Investigations agents served simultaneous search warrants and raided Combs' mansions in Los Angeles and Miami on March 25.

His defense attorney Aaron Dyer the day after the raids called them “a gross use of military-level force,” said the allegations were “meritless,” and said Combs was “innocent and will continue to fight" to clear his name.

Combs, then known as Puff Daddy, was at the center of the East Coast-West Coast hip-hop battles of the 1990s as the partner and producer of the Notorious B.I.G., who was shot and killed in 1997. But like many of those who survived the era, his public image had softened with age into a genteel host of parties in Hollywood and the Hamptons, a fashion-forward businessman, and a doting father who spoiled his kids, some of whom lost their mother in 2018.

But a different image began emerging in November, when his former protege and girlfriend, the R&B singer Cassie, became the first of several people to sue him for sexual abuse with stories of a steady stream of sex workers in drug-fueled settings where some of those involved were coerced or cajoled into sex.

In her November lawsuit, Cassie alleged years of abuse, including beatings and rape. Her suit also alleged Combs engaged in sex trafficking by “requiring her to engage in forced sexual acts in multiple jurisdictions” and by engaging in “harboring and transportation of Plaintiff for purposes of sex induced by force, fraud, or coercion.” It also said he compelled her to help him traffic male sex workers Combs would force Cassie to have sex with while he filmed.

The suit was settled settled the following day, but its reverberations would last far longer. Combs lost lingering allies, supporters and those reserving judgment when CNN in May aired a leaked video of him punching Cassie, kicking her and throwing her on the floor in a hotel hallway.

The following day, in his first real acknowledgement of wrongdoing since the stream of allegations began, Combs posted a social media video apologizing, saying “I was disgusted when I did it” and “I’m disgusted now.” Cassie’s lawsuit was followed by at least a half-dozen others in the ensuing months.

In February, a music producer filed a lawsuit alleging Combs coerced him to solicit prostitutes and pressured him to have sex with them.

Another of Combs’ accusers was a woman who said the rap producer raped her two decades ago when she was 17.

Another woman who filed a lawsuit, April Lampos, said she was a college student in 1994 when she met Combs and a series of “terrifying sexual encounters” with Combs and those around him began that lasted for years.

Combs and his attorneys denied nearly all of the lawsuits’ allegations.

While authorities did not publicly say that the lawsuits set off the criminal investigation, Dyer said when the warrants were served that the case was based on “meritless accusations made in civil lawsuits.”

The AP does not typically name people who say they have been sexually abused unless they come forward publicly as Cassie and Lampros did.

As the founder of Bad Boy Records, Combs became one of the most influential hip-hop producers and executives of the past three decades Along with the Notorious B.I.G. he worked with a slew of top-tier artists including Mary J. Blige, Usher, Lil Kim, Faith Evans and 112.

Combs’ roles in his businesses beyond music — including lucrative private-label spirits, a media company and the Sean John Fashion line — took major hits when the allegations arose.

The consequences were even greater when the leaked beating video emerged. Howard University cut ties with him, and he returned his key to the city of New York at the request of the mayor.

FILE - Sean "Diddy" Combs arrives at the LA Premiere of "The Four: Battle For Stardom" at the CBS Radford Studio Center on May 30, 2018, in Los Angeles. (Photo by Willy Sanjuan/Invision/AP, File)