It Was a Good Day for Tesla, a Bad One for Nikola

The S&P 500 added to its record Wednesday as US stock indexes drifted through a quiet, mixed day on Wall Street.

• The S&P 500 rose 14.57 points, or 0.2%, to 6,144.15 after setting an all-time high the day before.
• The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 71.25 points, or 0.2%, to 44,627.59.
• The Nasdaq composite rose 14.99 points, or 0.1%, to 20,056.25.

Elon Musk's Tesla was one of the strongest forces lifting the market. It rose 1.8% after another electric-vehicle company, Nikola, plunged 39.1% following its filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. The electric truck maker said it will try to sell off its assets and wind down its business.

A 9.7% rally for Analog Devices also helped push the S&P 500 higher, the AP reports. The semiconductor company reported stronger profit for the latest quarter than analysts expected, despite what CEO Vincent Roche called a "challenging macro and geopolitical backdrop." They helped offset a 21.5% tumble for Celanese, which dropped even though the chemical company reported profit for the end of 2024 that topped analysts' expectations. CEO Scott Richardson warned that it saw "demand deterioration that gave no sign of easing" during the last three months of the year, and the company expects weakness to continue for such core markets as automotive, construction, and paints.

Toll Brothers, meanwhile, fell 5.8% after the homebuilder reported a weaker profit for the latest quarter than analysts expected. CEO Douglas Yearley Jr. said this spring selling season has seen healthy demand so far for homes at the higher end of the price spectrum, but "affordability constraints" are hurting sales at the lower end. A separate report on Wednesday morning said homebuilders as a group broke ground on fewer US houses last month than economists expected. High mortgage rates are making it difficult for some potential homebuyers to afford a house, even though the Federal Reserve began cutting its main interest rate in September in order to make things easier for the economy.

(More stock market stories.)