Wall Street drifted to a mixed close as drops for Ford Motor and Qualcomm worked against buoyant fashion and cigarette stocks. The S&P 500 rose 0.4% Thursday following healthy gains for stock markets across much of Europe and Asia.

US stocks were drifting on Thursday, as investors assessed big earnings and markets awaited US President Donald Trump's next move on trade curbs. At 11:26 a.m. ET, the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 75.

Trading on Wall Street is mixed and subdued with the arrival of more quarterly financial reports from major corporations and new data on the U.S. jobs market due over the final two days of the week. Futures for the S&P 500 and Dow Jones industrials shifted between tiny gains and losses before the bell Thursday,

Wall Street drifted higher Wednesday as gains for most stocks outweighed drops for Alphabet and some other big-name companies following their latest profit reports.

Stocks on Wall Street edged higher Wednesday as the focus swings back toward how much profit businesses are making. The S&P 500 rose 0.3% in afternoon trading on Wednesday. The