Most of Wall Street Drifts Thursday    01/08 15:22

   Modest moves for Wall Street overall masked some big swings underneath the 
surface on Thursday, including for makers of weapons and other military 
equipment after President Donald Trump said he wants to increase spending on 
them sharply.

   NEW YORK (AP) -- Modest moves for Wall Street overall masked some big swings 
underneath the surface on Thursday, including for makers of weapons and other 
military equipment after President Donald Trump said he wants to increase 
spending on them sharply.

   The S&P 500 barely budged and inched up by less than 0.1%, coming off its 
first loss in four days. It remains near its all-time high set earlier this 
week. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 270 points, or 0.6%, and the Nasdaq 
composite fell 0.4%.

   The majority of stocks climbed as yields ticked higher in the bond market 
following mixed reports on the U.S. economy.

   The number of U.S. workers applying for unemployment benefits rose last 
week, a potential indicator of increasing layoffs, but by no more than 
economists expected. Other reports said U.S. workers improved their 
productivity by more in the summer than economists expected, while the U.S. 
trade deficit unexpectedly shrank in October.

   On Wall Street, defense-industry companies rallied after Trump said he wants 
to increase U.S. military spending to $1.5 trillion in 2027 from $901 billion 
in order to build the "Dream Military."

   L3Harris Technologies jumped 5.2%, Lockheed Martin climbed 4.3% and Northrop 
Grumman added 2.4%. They bounced back from losses the prior day, when Trump 
complained defense contractors were making military equipment too slowly.

   RTX came under particular criticism by Trump, and its stock lagged behind 
rivals. It inched up 0.8% after Trump said that it was the "slowest in 
increasing their volume."

   Trump signed an executive order Wednesday calling on the Pentagon to ensure 
future contracts with contractors contain a provision prohibiting their ability 
to buy back their own stock during a period of underperformance on U.S. 
government contracts.

   Another winner on Wall Street was Constellation Brands, which climbed 5.3% 
after the beer and wine company reported a better profit for the latest quarter 
than analysts expected.

   They helped work against drops for several technology stocks that held back 
the overall market. Nvidia was the heaviest weight on the S&P 500 after 
dropping 2.2% and giving back some of its big gain of nearly 40% last year.

   All told, the S&P 500 added 0.53 to 6,921.46 points. The Dow Jones 
Industrial Average added 270.03 to 49,266.11, and the Nasdaq composite fell 
104.26 to 23,480.02.

   Elsewhere, oil prices jumped to continue their zigzags since Trump ousted 
the leader of Venezuela last weekend.

   A barrel of benchmark U.S. crude climbed 3.2% to $57.76. Brent crude, the 
international standard, rose 3.4% to settle at $61.99 per barrel.

   Venezuela is potentially sitting on more oil than any other country in the 
world, and any increase in production could push further downward on prices, 
which have already fallen on expectations for plentiful supplies. But billions 
of dollars of investment are likely necessary to get Venezuela's aging 
infrastructure in good-enough shape to ramp up production sharply.

   It's not just Venezuela where the U.S. military could see action, as Trump 
talks about "troubled and dangerous times." The president in recent days has 
also called for taking over the Danish territory of Greenland for national 
security reasons and has suggested he's open to carrying out military 
operations in Colombia.

   In stock markets abroad, indexes moved modestly in Europe following a weak 
finish in Asia.

   Japan's Nikkei 225 dropped 1.6% for one of the world's bigger moves, while 
Hong Kong's Hang Seng fell 1.2%.

   In the bond market, the yield on the 10-year Treasury rose to 4.18% from 
4.15% late Wednesday.