--- title: "US STOCKS-S&P 500 barely gains, investors focus on trade, wait for data" description: "The S&P 500 closed slightly higher, gaining 0.10%, while the Dow fell 0.21% and the Nasdaq rose 0.72%. Investors are focused on trade developments and awaiting economic data, particularly after a rece" type: "news" locale: "en" url: "https://longbridge.com/en/news/240234677.md" published_at: "2025-05-14T20:44:39.000Z" --- # US STOCKS-S&P 500 barely gains, investors focus on trade, wait for data > The S&P 500 closed slightly higher, gaining 0.10%, while the Dow fell 0.21% and the Nasdaq rose 0.72%. Investors are focused on trade developments and awaiting economic data, particularly after a recent pause in U.S.-China tariffs. American Eagle Outfitters shares dropped 6.4% after withdrawing its annual forecast, while AMD shares rose 4.7% following a $6 billion buyback announcement. Overall, market activity was mixed with declining issues outnumbering advancers on both the NYSE and Nasdaq. Indexes mixed: Dow off 0.21%, S&P 500 up 0.10%, Nasdaq up 0.72% American Eagle Outfitters drops after withdrawing FY forecast AMD gains after announcing $6 billion buyback plan Updates with final closing data, trading volume By Sinéad Carew and Shashwat Chauhan May 14 (Reuters) - The S&P 500 closed slightly higher after flitting between gains and losses during Wednesday's lackluster session as investors waited for the next batch of economic data after a robust start to the week spurred by soft inflation data and a U.S.-China tariff truce. Investors were watching out for more trade developments while President Donald Trump toured the Gulf states and secured $600 billion in commitments from Saudi Arabia. Some U.S. tech companies rallied after the administration announced artificial-intelligence-related deals in the Middle East on Tuesday. "There's overhanging uncertainty about what world leaders, including President Trump are going to say about trade," said Tim Ghriskey, senior portfolio strategist at Ingalls & Snyder in New York, noting that while earlier tariff policies were on pause there were no final deals in place. "The recent announcements have been good and that caused a huge rally, but we still have uncertainty," he said. U.S. stocks had rallied sharply on Monday and advanced again on Tuesday after the United States and China hit pause for 90 days on their fierce tariff dispute. And it had also helped that data released on Tuesday showed U.S. consumer prices rebounded moderately in April. Prior to this week, the U.S. announcement of a 90-day tariff pause on April 9 for countries other than China and a limited U.S.-UK trade agreement last week had also helped equities. U.S. Federal Reserve Vice Chair Philip Jefferson said on Wednesday that while recent inflation data pointed to progress towards the Fed's 2% inflation goal, the outlook was now uncertain. Chicago Fed President Austan Goolsbee said the data did not necessarily reflect the impact of rising tariffs. Fed Chair Jerome Powell is slated to speak on Thursday, and his comments will be closely watched for clues on how the central bank plans to proceed with monetary policy easing. The Dow Jones Industrial Average .DJI fell 89.37 points, or 0.21%, to 42,051.06 and its biggest losers were drug companies Merck & Co MRK.N, down 4%, and Amgen AMGN.O, which finished down 3%. The S&P 500 .SPX gained 6.03 points, or 0.10%, to 5,892.58. This added slightly to its year-to-date gain after closing higher for the year on Tuesday for the first time since February 28. The benchmark is still about 4% below its Feb. 19 record closing high, for its sixth straight day of gains. The Nasdaq Composite .IXIC gained 136.72 points, or 0.72%, to 19,146.81. Eight of the S&P 500's 11 major industry sectors closed lower with Healthcare .SPXHC, down 2.31%, and materials .SPLRCM, down 0.96%, the weakest of the bunch. The biggest gainers were communications services .SPLRCL, up 1.6%, and technology .SPLRCT, which added about 0.96%. With Wednesday being a relatively quiet day for economic data, Andrew Graham, managing partner and founder of Jackson Square Capital, said investors were holding steady before April's Producer Price Index (PPI) and retail sales readings due on Thursday morning. "People are looking for any sort of evidence that the tariff situation has leaked into the real economy," said Graham, but with 90-day pauses to tariff policies in place, he said he is less concerned about April's data readings. Megacap and growth stocks rose, with Nvidia NVDA.O the biggest S&P 500 boost, rising more than 4%. Chip designer Advanced Micro Devices AMD.O shares rose 4.7% after it approved a $6 billion share buyback program. Boeing BA.N shares rose 0.6% after state carrier Qatar Airways signed a deal to purchase jets from the U.S. planemaker during Trump's visit to Doha. In individual stocks, American Eagle Outfitters AEO.N shares sank 6.4% after the apparel company withdrew its annual forecasts, citing tariff-fueled economic uncertainty. Declining issues outnumbered advancers by a 1.97-to-1 ratio on the NYSE where there were 132 new highs and 68 new lows. On the Nasdaq, 1,612 stocks rose and 2,807 fell as declining issues outnumbered advancers by a 1.74-to-1 ratio. The S&P 500 posted 3 new 52-week highs and 9 new lows while the Nasdaq Composite recorded 59 new highs and 104 new lows. On U.S. exchanges 19.73 billion shares changed hands compared with the 16.77 billion average for the last 20 sessions. ### Related Stocks - [AEO.US - American Eagle Outfitters](https://longbridge.com/en/quote/AEO.US.md) - [AMD.US - AMD](https://longbridge.com/en/quote/AMD.US.md) - [NVDA.US - NVIDIA](https://longbridge.com/en/quote/NVDA.US.md) ## Related News & Research | Title | Description | URL | |-------|-------------|-----| | Can NVIDIA Maintain its Dominancy Amidst Rising ASIC Competition | NVIDIA faces challenges in China due to regulatory actions affecting its data-center market. Concerns about long-term ma | [Link](https://longbridge.com/en/news/276370197.md) | | Nvidia's new Meta deal may not be great news for these other tech stocks | Nvidia's expanded partnership with Meta has negatively impacted shares of competitors like Broadcom, AMD, and Arista. 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