Dollar General Jumps 14%

The US stock market held near its records Thursday after a wobbly day of trading.

• The S&P 500 edged up 7.40 points, or 0.1%, to 6,857.12 and remains just 0.5% below its all-time high.
• The Dow Dow Jones Industrial Average slipped 31.96 points, or 0.1%, to 47,850.94.
• The Nasdaq composite rose 51.04 points, or 0.2%, to 23,505.14.

Dollar General rallied 14% after reporting a better profit than analysts expected. More customers shopped at its stores, and it also squeezed more profit out of each $1 in sales that it made. The market's modest overall moves continue a calm run following weeks of sharp swings for stocks, the AP reports.

Hormel rose 3.8% after likewise reporting a better profit than expected, thanks in part to strength for its Planters nuts and Jennie-O turkey offerings. It also gave a forecasted range for profit in the upcoming year whose midpoint was above analysts' forecasts. Salesforce, meanwhile, added 3.7% after swinging between gains and losses earlier in the morning. It delivered a better profit for the latest quarter than analysts expected, though its revenue fell just short. CEO Marc Benioff extolled how Salesforce is "uniquely positioned for this new era" of artificial intelligence technology, even if worries continue that all the world's spending on AI may not end up worth it.

Kroger dropped 4.6%. The grocer reported weaker revenue for the latest quarter than analysts expected, though its profit beat forecasts Data storage company Snowflake sank 11.4% despite topping analysts' expectations for profit and revenue in the latest quarter. Analysts at UBS said the company's stock may be feeling a letdown after excitement had grown so much after it blew past expectations in the quarter just before. Growth in product revenue also decelerated a bit in the latest quarter.

Expectations for a coming Fed cut to rates also took a very slight hit after reports suggested the US job market may be a bit better than expected. One report said fewer US workers filed for unemployment last week. The number was the lowest in more than three years. A separate report said that the number of layoffs announced last month fell by more than half from October's surge. It still was above year-ago levels, though, according to outplacement and executive coaching firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas.