Stocks tread water with Dow aiming for 40,000 | May 17 Yahoo Finance

US stocks were little changed Friday with Wall Street pausing on the run towards bullish milestones as investors dithered over the odds for rate cuts.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average (^DJI) held steady on the heels of touching the key 40,000 level for the first time during Thursday's trading. The S&P 500 (^GSPC) and the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite (^IXIC) slipped just under the flatline, but all the gauges were on track for weekly wins.

The run-up in stocks hit a bump in the wake of comments from Fed officials warning that rates are likely to stay at historic highs for a while. That dampened enthusiasm for the likelihood of a September cut that had been lifted by encouraging inflation data.

Friday's light economic and corporate calendar leaves few jumping-off points for the Dow to make another go at crossing its key juncture, while the S&P 500 and Nasdaq have their own fresh records within reach.

That puts the spotlight on appearances by the Fed's Mary Daly and Christopher Waller on Friday. The market will listen for any deviation from their colleagues' message that the Fed will follow the data and wait for clear signs of cooling inflation before making a move.

In individual movers, Reddit (RDDT) shares jumped 13%, not far off its highest close of $65.11 hit in March. The social media platform has signed a partnership with OpenAI that will see ChatGPT integrate content from its forums.

Meanwhile, GameStop (GME) shares sank over 25% after the games retailer said it expects first quarter sales to drop as shoppers shift to online outlets. Shares in the meme stock soared at the start of the week in an echo of the 2021 frenzy, but the rally has turned into a slide in recent days.

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