Stock market today: Tech stocks and AI pull Wall Street toward more records

NEW YORK (AP) — U.S. stock indexes are rising toward more records Wednesday after tech companies talked up how much artificial intelligence is boosting their results.

The S&P 500 rose 0.4% in morning trading to add to what looks to be one of its best years of the millennium. It’s on track to set an all-time high for the 56th time this year after coming off 10 gains in the last 11 days.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 181 points, or 0.4%, as of 10:45 a.m. Eastern time, while the Nasdaq composite was adding 1% to its own record.

Salesforce helped pull the market higher after delivering stronger revenue for the latest quarter than analysts expected, though its profit fell just short.

CEO Mark Benioff highlighted the company’s artificial-intelligence offering for customers, saying “the rise of autonomous AI agents is revolutionizing global labor, reshaping how industries operate and scale.” The stock of the company, which helps businesses manage their customers, rose 9.2%.

Marvell Technology jumped even more after delivering better results than expected, up 21.9%. CEO Matt Murphy said the semiconductor supplier is seeing strong demand from AI and gave a forecast for profit in the upcoming quarter that topped analysts’ expectations.

They helped offset a drop of 10.8% for Foot Locker, which reported profit and revenue that fell short of analysts’ expectations.

CEO Mary Dillon said the company is taking a more cautious view, and it cut its forecasts for sales and profit this year. Dillon pointed to how keen customers are for discounts and how soft demand has been outside of Thanksgiving week and other key selling periods.

Retailers overall have offered mixed signals about how resilient U.S. shoppers can remain. Their spending has been one of the main reasons the U.S. economy has avoided a recession that earlier seemed inevitable because of high interest rates brought by the Federal Reserve to crush inflation. But shoppers are now contending with still-high prices and a slowing job market.

This week’s highlight for Wall Street will be Friday’s jobs report from the U.S. government, which will show how many people employers hired and fired last month. A report on Wednesday morning may have offered a preview of it.

The report from ADP suggested employers in the private sector increased their payrolls by less last month than economists expected. Hiring in manufacturing was the weakest since the spring, according to Nela Richardson, chief economist at ADP.

The report helped solidify traders’ expectations that the Fed will cut its main interest rate again when it meets in two weeks.

The Fed began easing its main interest rate from a two-decade high in September, hoping to offer more support for the job market. It had appeared set to continue cutting interest rates into next year, but the election of Donald Trump has scrambled Wall Street’s expectations somewhat.

Trump's preference for higher tariffs and other policies could lead to higher economic growth and inflation, which could alter the Fed’s plans.

Another report on Wednesday morning said health care, finance and other businesses in the U.S. services sector are continuing to grow, but not by as much as before and not by as much as economists expected.

One respondent from the construction industry told the survey from the Institute for Supply Management that the Fed's rate cuts have not pulled down mortgage rates as much as hoped yet. Plus “the unknown effect of tariffs clouds the future.”

In the bond market, the yield on the 10-year Treasury edged down to 4.22% from 4.23% late Tuesday.

On Wall Street, Campbell's fell 5% for one of the S&P 500's sharper losses despite increasing its dividend and reporting a stronger profit for the latest quarter than analysts expected. Its revenue fell short of Wall Street's expectations, and the National Football League's Washington Commanders hired Campbell's CEO Mark Clouse as its team president.

Campbell's said Mick Beekhuizen, its president of meals and beverages, will become its 15th CEO following Clouse's departure.

Gains for airline stocks helped offset that drop after JetBlue Airways said it saw stronger bookings for travel in November and December following the presidential election. It said it's also benefiting from lower fuel prices, as well as lower costs due to improved on-time performance.

JetBlue jumped 7%, while Southwest Airlines climbed 2.6%.

In stock markets abroad, South Korea’s Kospi sank 1.4% following a night full of drama in Seoul.

President Yoon Suk Yeol was facing possible impeachment after he suddenly declared martial law on Tuesday night, prompting troops to surround the parliament. Yoon accused pro-North Korean forces of plotting to overthrow one of the world’s most vibrant democracies. The martial law declaration was revoked about six hours later.

Samsung Electronics fell 0.9% in Seoul. The country’s financial regulator said it was prepared to deploy 10 trillion won ($7.07 billion) into a stock market stabilization fund at any time, the Yonhap news agency reported.

In France, political turmoil has also been rising as the government faces a no-confidence vote Wednesday in parliament following a divisive budget debate. The CAC 40 in Paris rose 0.6%.

AP Writers Matt Ott and Zimo Zhong contributed.

A person walks on Wall St. near the New York Stock Exchange in New York's Financial District on Wednesday, Dec. 4, 2024. (AP Photo/Peter Morgan)

Holiday decorations are shown in front of the New York Stock Exchange in New York's Financial District on Tuesday, Dec. 3, 2024. (AP Photo/Peter Morgan)

FILE - Pedestrians cross Wall Street in New York's Financial District on Nov. 19, 2024. (AP Photo/Peter Morgan, File)

A person rides a bicycle in front of Tokyo Stock Exchange building Tuesday, Dec. 3, 2024, in Tokyo. (AP Photo/Eugene Hoshiko)

Currency traders watch monitors at the foreign exchange dealing room of the KEB Hana Bank headquarters in Seoul, South Korea, Tuesday, Dec. 3, 2024. (AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon)

TBILISI, Georgia (AP) — Georgian police on Wednesday raided the offices of an opposition party and arrested its leader in an apparent attempt to squelch a wave of mass protests triggered by the governing party’s decision to suspend negotiations on joining the European Union.

During the past six nights, riot police used water cannons and tear gas to disperse the demonstrators, who threw fireworks at police officers and built barricades on the Georgian capital’s central boulevard. More than 300 protesters have been detained since Thursday and over 100 people have been treated for injuries.

On Wednesday, the Coalition for Change opposition party said that police raided its offices and detained its leader, Nika Gvaramia. It shared a video showing several officers dragging Gvaramia into a car.

Georgian media reported that police also raided the offices of several other opposition groups and non-government organizations.

Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze of the Georgian Dream party said the raids targeted those who encouraged violence during protests in an attempt to topple his government. “I wouldn’t call this repression; it is more of a preventive measure than repression,” he said.

The ruling Georgian Dream retained control of parliament in the disputed Oct. 26 election, which was widely seen as a referendum on Georgia’s EU aspirations. The opposition and the pro-Western president have accused the governing party of rigging the vote with neighboring Russia’s help and boycotted parliament sessions.

Mass opposition protests sparked by the vote gained new momentum after the governing party’s decision on Thursday to put the EU accession talks on hold.

Georgian President Salome Zourabichvili refused to recognize the official election results and contested them in the Constitutional Court, which rejected her appeal on Tuesday. Zourabichvili, who plays a largely ceremonial role, has declared that she would stay on the job even after her six-year term ends later this month to lead the opposition demand for a new parliamentary election.

Zourabichvili urged the country's Western partners to respond to Wednesday's wave of police raids of opposition groups by putting “strong pressure on a ruling party that is driving the country over the cliff!” “Do not be late!” she wrote on social platform X.

The EU granted Georgia candidate status in December 2023 on condition that it meet the bloc’s recommendations, but put its accession on hold and cut financial support in June after the passage of a “foreign influence” law that was widely seen as a blow to democratic freedoms. It requires organizations that receive more than 20% of their funding from abroad to register as “pursuing the interest of a foreign power,” similar to a Russian law used to discredit organizations critical of the government.

The Georgian government’s announcement of the EU accession talks’ suspension came hours after the European Parliament adopted a resolution criticizing October’s election as neither free nor fair.

On Monday, the EU reiterated its “serious concerns about the continuous democratic backsliding of the country.”

Kobakhidze said Tuesday that his government is willing to open EU accession talks if the bloc ends its “blackmail.”

Police block demonstrators outside the parliament during a protest against the government's decision to suspend negotiations on joining the European Union in Tbilisi, Georgia, Tuesday, Dec. 3, 2024. (AP Photo/Zurab Tsertsvadze)

Police shoot tear gas towards demonstrators during a protest against the government's decision to suspend negotiations on joining the European Union in Tbilisi, Georgia, early Wednesday, Dec. 4, 2024. (AP Photo/Pavel Bednyakov)

Police shoot tear gas towards demonstrators during a protest against the government's decision to suspend negotiations on joining the European Union in Tbilisi, Georgia, early Wednesday, Dec. 4, 2024. (AP Photo/Pavel Bednyakov)

Police shoot tear gas towards demonstrators during a protest against the government's decision to suspend negotiations on joining the European Union in Tbilisi, Georgia, early Wednesday, Dec. 4, 2024. (AP Photo/Pavel Bednyakov)

Demonstrators faceoff police during a protest against the government's decision to suspend negotiations on joining the European Union in Tbilisi, Georgia, early Wednesday, Dec. 4, 2024. (AP Photo/Pavel Bednyakov)

Police block demonstrators outside the parliament during a protest against the government's decision to suspend negotiations on joining the European Union in Tbilisi, Georgia, Tuesday, Dec. 3, 2024. (AP Photo/Pavel Bednyakov)

Journalists take cover around the corner of the parliament building during a protest against the government's decision to suspend negotiations on joining the European Union in Tbilisi, Georgia, on Tuesday, Dec. 3, 2024. (AP Photo/Pavel Bednyakov)

Demonstrators launch firecrackers towards the police during a rally to protest against the government's decision to suspend negotiations on joining the European Union in Tbilisi, Georgia, early Wednesday, Dec. 4, 2024. (AP Photo/Zurab Tsertsvadze)

Demonstrators participate a rally to protest against the government's decision to suspend negotiations on joining the European Union in Tbilisi, Georgia, early Wednesday, Dec. 4, 2024. (AP Photo/Zurab Tsertsvadze)

Demonstrators warm themselves during a rally to protest against the government's decision to suspend negotiations on joining the European Union in Tbilisi, Georgia, early Wednesday, Dec. 4, 2024. (AP Photo/Zurab Tsertsvadze)

A demonstrator walks through a cloud of tear gas during a rally to protest against the government's decision to suspend negotiations on joining the European Union in Tbilisi, Georgia, early Wednesday, Dec. 4, 2024. (AP Photo/Zurab Tsertsvadze)

Demonstrators stand in front of the police during a rally to protest against the government's decision to suspend negotiations on joining the European Union in Tbilisi, Georgia, early Wednesday, Dec. 4, 2024. (AP Photo/Zurab Tsertsvadze)

A motorcyclist passes a burning barricade during a rally to protest against the government's decision to suspend negotiations on joining the European Union in Tbilisi, Georgia, early Wednesday, Dec. 4, 2024. (AP Photo/Pavel Bednyakov)

Demonstrators walk along a street during a rally to protest against the government's decision to suspend negotiations on joining the European Union in Tbilisi, Georgia, early Wednesday, Dec. 4, 2024. (AP Photo/Pavel Bednyakov)

Demonstrators participate in a rally to protest against the government's decision to suspend negotiations on joining the European Union in Tbilisi, Georgia, early Wednesday, Dec. 4, 2024. (AP Photo/Zurab Tsertsvadze)