The S&P 500 rose slightly Thursday, on track for a fourth straight gain, as investors weighed the latest earnings while inflation fears eased.
The broad market index traded 0.2% higher, while the Nasdaq Composite climbed 0.4%. The Dow Jones Industrial Average lagged, trading along the flatline.
TSMC, the primary manufacturer of advanced semiconductors, including those designed by Nvidia that are used for artificial-intelligence applications, reported fourth-quarter net profit rose 57% from a year earlier on demand for AI hardware. Revenue rose 39% from a year earlier to $26.35 billion. The company said it expects first-quarter revenue of between $25 billion and $25.8 billion, up from $18.87 billion a year earlier. U.S.-listed shares of the chip maker were up 6% in morning trading.
Consumers spent less than expected in December though they still kept up with inflation, according to a Census Bureau release Thursday.
Retail sales increased 0.4% on the month, down from the upwardly revised 0.8% growth in November and below the 0.5% Dow Jones consensus estimate. However, excluding auto-related items, sales rose 0.4%, in line with expectations. The numbers are adjusted for seasonality but not prices, which also increased 0.4% for the month, according to a Bureau of Labor Statistics report Wednesday.
In other news, the Labor Department said initial jobless claims for the week ending Jan. 11 totaled 217,000, an increase of 14,000 from the previous week and higher than the forecast for 210,000. Continuing claims, which run a week behind, declined slightly to 1.86 million.
