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Wed. 11:10 a.m.: Stocks turn mixed on Wall Street following 3 days of gains

An electronic stock board showing Japan's Nikkei 225 index at a securities firm is seen today at a street in Tokyo. Major Asian stock markets declined today after Wall Street gained on hopes for a global economic recovery and Japan's exports sank. (AP Photo/Eugene Hoshiko)

NEW YORK (AP) — Stocks are turning mixed on Wall Street early today as markets around the world take a pause following their big rally a day before.

The S&P 500 gave up an early gain and was little changed after the first half-hour of trading. Stocks elsewhere in the world made mostly modest gains, and Treasury yields were down slightly.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average was little changed at 26,290 and the Nasdaq composite was up 0.4 percent.

The S&P 500 has climbed back within 8 percent of its record set in February, after earlier being down nearly 34 percent, as reports give hope that the economy can pull out of its recession relatively quickly. With businesses reopening across the country, reports on retail sales Tuesday and on the job market earlier this month were much healthier than economists expected.

Continuing, unprecedented amounts of aid from the Federal Reserve is also helping to support markets, and the central bank’s chair will offer a second day of testimony on Capitol Hill later in the day.

Still, many professional investors urge caution and say the market’s big rally may have been overdone. The road back to full recovery will be long and is full of potential setbacks, in sharp contrast to the quick surge of roughly 40 percent for the S&P 500 since late March.

Consider Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings, whose stock has often led the market — both up and down — as expectations swing about the reopening economy. It had six straight days this month where it rose or fell more than 10 percent.

It said late Tuesday that it’s cancelling most of its voyages through September. Its shares fell 7.3 percent.

The chief risk for the market lies in rising infection levels in several hotspots around the world, including Florida, Texas and China. Even if authorities don’t reinstate widespread lockdowns, the worry is that businesses and consumers could get frightened by new waves of infections and pull back on their spending.

The yield on the 10-year Treasury slipped to 0.73 percent from 0.75 percent late Tuesday. It tends to move with investors’ expectations for the economy and inflation.

In Europe, Germany’s DAX returned 0.6 percent, and France’s CAC 40 rose 1.1 percent. The FTSE 100 in London added 0.5 percent.

In Asia, South Korea’s Kospi ticked up 0.1 percent, and the Hang Seng in Hong Kong rose 0.6 percent. Japan’s Nikkei 225 fell 0.6 percent after the government reported the sharpest decline in exports since the 2008 global crisis.

A barrel of U.S. crude oil fell 1.5 percent to $37.79. Brent crude, the international standard, slipped 1.1 percent to $40.51 per barrel.

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