Another retailer, Five Below, gave more discouraging comments about how its customers are doing. Its profit and revenue last quarter fell short of analysts’ expectations, and CEO Joel Anderson said struggles for the company’s core lower-income customers dragged on results, even as it saw strong growth from its higher-income customers. Five Below’s stock fell 10.6 per cent.

Many retailers and other companies have been highlighting a split between their customers making lower and higher incomes. Inflation is particularly hurting those at the lower end, who are struggling to keep up with a cost of living that’s still rising, even if inflation is not as fast as before. That threatens to crack a linchpin that’s kept the US economy out of a recession despite high interest rates: strong spending by US households.

Another factor that’s helped US consumer spending stay so strong has been a remarkably solid job market. But a report on Thursday showed some potential softening there as well.

More US workers applied for unemployment benefits last week than the week before, when economists were expecting to see a slight decline. The numbers are still low compared with history, but they could suggest some slowing in the job market.

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Wall Street is actually hoping for just such a slowdown. That’s because a cooldown can drive inflation lower and convince the Federal Reserve to deliver the cuts to interest rates that traders desire so much. The danger is if the slowdown for the economy overshoots and turns into a recession, which would ultimately hurt stock prices.

In a potentially discouraging signal for markets, a separate report overnight said the productivity of US workers had not been quite as strong in the first three months of the year as economists thought. That’s key because strong productivity gains could allow wages for US workers to keep rising without adding as much upward pressure on inflation.

After the economic reports, Treasury yields were holding relatively steady. The yield on the 10-year Treasury rose to 4.29 per cent from 4.28 per cent late Wednesday.

The two-year yield, which moves more on expectations for Fed action, fell to 4.72 per cent from 4.73 per cent late Wednesday.

Lululemon Athletica climbed 4.8 per cent after reporting better profit for the latest quarter than analysts expected, in large part because of strong growth in sales outside the Americas. J.M. Smucker rose 4.6 per cent after the company behind Uncrustables and Jif peanut butter likewise topped profit expectations.

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Robinhood Markets rose 6.5 per cent after saying it had agreed to buy Bitstamp, a cryptocurrency exchange. Robinhood said the deal, which still needed regulatory approvals, would bring in customers from around the world, including the EU and Asia.

GameStop soared 47.5 per cent in the latest whipsaw move for the video game retailer’s stock. It has been particularly volatile since a central character from its initial supernova run in 2021 recently returned to social media after a years-long hiatus. The online hero, who goes by Roaring Kitty among other nicknames, is scheduled to return to YouTube for a live stream on Friday.

Nvidia reversed an early gain and slipped 1.2 per cent a day after becoming the third company whose total value topped $US3 trillion. The chip company has been riding a tidal wave of enthusiasm for artificial intelligence technology.