Wall Street is drifting and making smaller moves on Wednesday, a day after strong reports on the economy stirred up worries that inflation and interest rates may stay higher than expected. The S&P 500 was edging down by 0.

A Wells Fargo analyst recently raised the company's price target for RTX ( RTX 0.98%) stock to $151 from a previous target of $140 and maintained an "overweight" rating on the stock. As such, it represents a 31% premium to the current price, but is the new target warranted?

A soft finish to 2024 still left stocks with a second straight stellar year. The S&P 500 logged a 23.3% gain, which follows a 24% rise in 2023. The combined gains of more than 53% was the largest two-year percentage jump for the index since year-end 1998,

BANGKOK -- World shares were mixed on Thursday after the latest U.S. economic data calmed frazzled nerves on Wall Street.

In other words, history says the Nasdaq could advance 16% in 2025, but most Wall Street analysts see even more upside in Nvidia ( NVDA -0.02%) and Lam Research ( LRCX -0.62%), two companies that reset their soaring share prices by completing 10-for-1 stock splits in 2024.

Asian shares mostly rose Tuesday, deriving optimism from rising technology stocks on Wall Street, led by Nvidia. Japan's benchmark Nikkei 225 jumped 2.4% in morning trading to 40,248.68. Hong Kong's Hang Seng index slid 0.

U.S. stock indexes are feeling pressure from better-than-expected reports on the job market and business activity.

The market outlook for 2025 sees U.S. GDP growing at a healthy rate, the stock market gains diversifying beyond the Magnificent Seven—with health care a likely winner—and an evolution in the AI sector that powered virtually all of last year’s rally.