US: Stocks edge up as AMC soars

[NEW YORK] Wall Street stocks finished marginally higher on Wednesday while oil-linked equities continued to rally and AMC, the darling of retail investors, soared.

The muted session extended a choppy run this week as investors weigh positive news on the reopening economy against lingering worries over inflation.

The S&P 500 is "timidly tiptoeing toward new highs," said CFRA Research's Sam Stovall. "Inflation appears to be the concern du jour, at least based on the number of appearances in financial media headlines."

A Federal Reserve survey on Wednesday chronicled positive sentiment among companies on the recovery mixed with accounts of the supply disruptions and labor shortages have begun to hit prices and output.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average finished up 0.1 per cent at 34,600.38.

The broad-based S&P 500 also advanced 0.1 per cent to close at 4,208.12, as did the tech-rich Nasdaq Composite Index, which ended at 13,756.33.

Petroleum-linked equities continued to gain as US oil prices finished at their highest level since October 2018.

Dow member Chevron won 1.3 per cent, while Transocean surged 9.4 per cent and Devon Energy advanced 2.0 per cent.

Meanwhile, movie theater chain AMC Entertainment nearly doubled, surging 95.2 per cent on a continued buying spree by retail investors.

The chain also announced a new outreach program to its retail investors that includes a free large popcorn this summer at a movie screening.

The soaring valuations of AMC and some other "Reddit rebellion" stocks is "a reflection of the tremendous liquidity in the market that has come from the Federal Reserve and fiscal policy and the desire to take on this sort of risk," said Quincy Krosby of Prudential Financial.

AFP