US stocks drift near their records as gold's price falls again

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NEW YORK (AP) — Stocks are drifting near their record heights on Wall Street Wednesday, while the price of gold falls again to trim more off its tremendous gain for the year.

The S&P 500 slipped 0.1% in morning trading and is sitting just underneath its all-time high, which was set earlier this month. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 99 points, or 0.2%, coming off its own record. The Nasdaq composite was 0.3% lower, as of 10:15 a.m. Eastern time.

Bank stocks were holding relatively steady after Capital One Financial, Western Alliance Bancorp and others reported stronger profits for the summer than analysts expected. The report from Western Alliance was particularly welcome after it helped shake confidence in the industry last week. It’s one of several banks that have warned of potentially bad loans on its books, possibly because of fraud.

Intuitive Surgical, which sells robotic-assisted surgical systems, jumped 16.3%, and Boston Scientific climbed 4.2% after they likewise reported better profits for the latest quarter than analysts expected.

It’s usually the case that the majority of companies deliver better profits each quarter than analysts had forecast. But the pressure is higher on companies to do so this time around because of criticism that their stock prices shot too high following a 35% romp for the S&P 500 from a low in April.

Netflix’s stock, for example, came into the day with a jump of 39.3% for the year so far, more than double the S&P 500’s gain. But its stock dropped 8.6% on Wednesday after it delivered weaker results for the latest quarter than expected.

AT&T fell 2.3% after delivering a profit that only matched analysts’ expectations, while Texas Instruments sank 5.1% after its profit fell just short of forecasts.

Beyond Meat, meanwhile, continued its meme-stock run and soared another 85.9% to bring its stunning gain for the week to 942%. Part of Beyond’s rise could be due to a recent announcement that Walmart will increase availability of some of its products at over 2,000 U.S. stores.

The maker of plant-based meat alternatives was also the biggest holding in the Roundhill Meme Stock exchange-traded fund, as of Tuesday. The ETF holds stocks of companies where investors have piled in almost regardless of their financial prospects, simply in hopes of catching a wave.

Momentum was continuing to head the other way for gold, which slipped 0.7% to $4,080.50 per ounce. That’s after Tuesday’s 5.3% slide knocked it off its record high.

Many of the same factors that drew buyers to gold this year are still there. Expectations are still for the Federal Reserve to cut interest rates through next year. Concerns are growing about inflation remaining high. And the worrisome mountains of debt that the U.S. and other governments worldwide have amassed are only rising further.

But no investment’s price goes up forever, and criticism had been growing that gold’s price had gone too far, too fast after it shot up even more than the U.S. stock market. Gold’s price is still up more than 50% for the year so far.

In stock markets abroad, indexes were mixed across Europe and Asia.

London’s FTSE 100 rose 1.1% after a report on U.K. inflation raised hopes for another cut to interest rates next month. South Korea’s Kospi jumped 1.6% for another one of the worlds bigger gains. But indexes fell 0.9% in Hong Kong and 0.4% in Paris.

In the bond market, the yield on the 10-year Treasury edged down to 3.97% from 3.98% late Tuesday.

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AP Business Writers Yuri Kageyama and Matt Ott contributed.