NEW YORK — Modest moves for Wall Street overall masked some big swings underneath the surface on Thursday, including for makers of weapons and other military equipment after President Donald Trump said he wants to increase spending on them sharply.
The S&P 500 barely budged and inched up by less than 0.1%, coming off its first loss in four days. It remains near its all-time high set earlier this week. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 270 points, or 0.6%, and the Nasdaq composite fell 0.4%.
The majority of stocks climbed as yields ticked higher in the bond market following mixed reports on the U.S. economy.
The number of U.S. workers applying for unemployment benefits rose last week, a potential indicator of increasing layoffs, but by no more than economists expected. Other reports said U.S. workers improved their productivity by more in the summer than economists expected, while the U.S. trade deficit unexpectedly shrank in October.
On Wall Street, defense-industry companies rallied after Trump said he wants to increase U.S. military spending to $1.5 trillion in 2027 from $901 billion in order to build the ''Dream Military.''
L3Harris Technologies jumped 5.2%, Lockheed Martin climbed 4.3% and Northrop Grumman added 2.4%. They bounced back from losses the prior day, when Trump complained defense contractors were making military equipment too slowly.
RTX came under particular criticism by Trump, and its stock lagged behind rivals. It inched up 0.8% after Trump said that it was the ''slowest in increasing their volume.''
Trump signed an executive order Wednesday calling on the Pentagon to ensure future contracts with contractors contain a provision prohibiting their ability to buy back their own stock during a period of underperformance on U.S. government contracts.
