Wall Street ticks toward the edge of its all-time high

Netflix offered some splash and fell 2.1% after the streaming company said it would buy Warner Bros. following its split from Discovery Global. Netflix will pay $72 billion in cash and stock for the company behind HBO Max, “Casablanca” and “Harry Potter,” and Warner Bros. Discovery rose 2.6%.

Ulta Beauty jumped 11% after the retailer reported stronger profit and revenue for the latest quarter than analysts expected. CEO Kecia Steelman said its customers are broadly feeling pressure, but Ulta saw growth across its categories, particularly in e-commerce. It raised its forecast for revenue over the full year.

Another encouraging signal for the crucial holiday shopping season came from Victoria’s Secret & Co. It reported a smaller loss for the latest quarter than analysts expected, and it likewise raised its forecast for sales over the full year. Its stock jumped 14.4%.

They worked against a 3.9% drop for Hewlett Packard Enterprise, which reported weaker revenue for the latest quarter than analysts forecast, though its profit topped expectations.

The U.S. stock market broadly has been much quieter this week. It’s a respite following earlier weeks of sharp and scary swings driven by worries that too many dollars may be flowing into artificial-intelligence technology, along with concerns about what the Federal Reserve will do with interest rates.

After some back and forth, the widespread expectation among traders is that the Fed will cut its main interest rate next week in hopes of shoring up the slowing U.S. job market. If it does, that would be the third cut of the year.

Investors love lower interest rates because they boost prices for investments and can juice the economy. The downside is that they can worsen inflation, which is stubbornly remaining above the Fed’s 2% target.

The S&P 500 has run back toward its all-time high, which was set in late October, in large part because of expectations for a coming cut to interest rates. That leaves the question of what Fed officials will do next year on rates, with traders waiting for any clues that may come out of next week’s Fed meeting.

In the bond market, Treasury yields held relatively steady amid the wait. The yield on the 10-year Treasury held at 4.11%, where it was late Thursday. The two-year Treasury yield, which more closely tracks expectations for what the Fed will do, edged up to 3.54% from 3.52%.

In stock markets abroad, indexes rose across much of Europe and Asia.

Germany’s DAX returned 0.9%, and South Korea’s Kospi jumped 1.8% for two of the world’s bigger gains.

Tokyo’s Nikkei 225 fell 1.1% after data showed household spending in Japan fell 3.0% in October from a year earlier. It was the sharpest drop since January 2024. Japanese markets have been shaky recently after the Bank of Japan hinted that hikes to interest rates may be coming.

AP Writer Teresa Cerojano contributed.