General Motors Jumps 9.4%

Stocks drifted to a mixed close on Wall Street Wednesday as drops in several Big Tech companies offset gains in other parts of the market. Facebook parent company Meta fell 2% and Google's parent company Alphabet gave up 1.6%.

• The S&P 500 gave up an early gain and fell 4.31 points, or 0.1%, to 4,550.58.
• The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 13.44 points, or less than 0.1%, to 35,430.42.
• The Nasdaq composite fell 23.27 points, or 0.2%, to 14,258.49.

General Motors jumped 9.4% after the automaker announced a big stock buyback, raised its dividend and said it wouldn't have any trouble absorbing the costs of its new labor contract, the AP reports. The stock is still down 6.2% for the year, while the S&P 500 is up more than 18%.

GM and its rivals agreed to new contracts with the United Auto Workers and Canadian auto workers in late October following strikes that lasted more than a month. Ford rose 2.1% and Jeep maker Stellantis rose 5.3%. Technology companies were behind much of the gains following several strong financial updates. NetApp jumped 14.6% after easily beating analysts' forecasts for earnings in its latest quarter and raising its outlook for the year. TurboTax maker Intuit rose 2.2% and software maker Workday gained 11% following encouraging results and forecasts.

On the losing end, Spam maker Hormel foods fell 4.6% after giving investors a weak profit forecast.Las Vegas Sands slid 4.9% after Miriam Adelson, the casino operator's controlling shareholder, sold some $2 billion in stock. The move came ahead of an announcement Wednesday that Adelson's family have agreed to buy a majority stake in the Dallas Mavericks NBA franchise, which is owned by Mark Cuban.

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Wall Street also received an encouraging economic update. The US economy grew at a brisk 5.2% annual pace from July through September, the government reported Wednesday, an upgrade from its previous estimate of 4.9%. The revision helps give more credence to the argument that a recession was always unlikely in 2023, said Jamie Cox, managing partner for Harris Financial Group. Fears of a recession have been waning throughout the year amid strong economic reports and consumer spending. (More stock market stories.)