Dow, S&P 500 set records in quiet pre-Thanksgiving trading

The Dow Jones industrial average and Standard & Poor’s 500 indexes again set records Wednesday in a quiet day of pre-holiday trading. Machinery and equipment makers climbed after strong results from Deere, but technology companies fell.

Banks rose as bond yields climbed. Companies that make hardware and network devices skidded after printer and PC maker HP gave a weak profit forecast.

“It sends kind of a chill through the sector,” said Sameer Samana, a strategist for the Wells Fargo Investment Institute.

The Dow rose 59.31 points, or 0.3 percent, to 19,083.18. The Standard & Poor’s 500 index edged up 1.78 points, or 0.1 percent, to 2,204.72. The Nasdaq composite lost 5.67 points, or 0.1 percent, to 5,380.68.

Trading was relatively light ahead of the Thanksgiving holiday. U.S. markets will be closed Thursday and will close early on Friday.

The Russell 2000 index of small-company stocks climbed for the 14th day in a row, its longest winning streak since early 1996. It has closed at a record high for nine consecutive days. It’s up 16 percent over that time and has now climbed 18 percent this year, more than twice as much as the S&P 500, which tracks large companies.