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 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,

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.

Most Wall Street analysts see upside in the stock market in 2025. Here's what investors should know.

Good news for the U.S. economy is back to being bad for Wall Street as the S&P 500, Dow Jones industrial average and Nasdaq all post losses.