The S&P 500 added to its record as US stock indexes drifted through a quiet Wednesday on Wall Street.

The S&P 500 rose 0.2 percent after setting an all-time high the day before. The Dow Jones Industrial Average picked up 71 points, or 0.2 percent, while the Nasdaq composite inched up by 0.1 percent.

Microsoft was the strongest force pushing the S&P 500 upward. It rose 1.3 percent after saying it had developed what it calls the world’s first “quantum processing unit,” which could lead to the development of much more powerful computers. While the gain was relatively modest, Microsoft's gargantuan size gives its stock's movements huge sway on the S&P 500 and other indexes.

A 9.7 percent rally for Analog Devices also helped push the market higher. The semiconductor company reported stronger profit for the latest quarter than analysts expected, despite what CEO Vincent Roche called a “challenging macro and geopolitical backdrop.”

Elon Musk’s Tesla rose 1.8 percent. It climbed after another electric-vehicle company, Nikola, plunged 39.1 percent following its filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. The electric truck maker said it would try to sell off its assets and wind down its business.

The yield on the 10-year Treasury eased a bit on Wednesday and edged down to 4.53 percent from 4.55 percent late on Tuesday. It was below 3.70 percent as recently as September and approaching 4.80 percent within the past few weeks.

Both the bond and the stock markets have increasingly been taking US President Donald Trump’s tariffs in stride, after earlier showing much more trepidation. The hope on Wall Street is that Trump is using such threats merely as a tool to drive negotiations, and the ultimate effects won’t be as bad as they initially appeared.

Minutes released for the Fed’s last policy meeting in January showed officials discussed how Trump’s proposed tariffs and mass deportations of migrants, as well as strong consumer spending, could push inflation higher this year

In stock markets abroad, London’s FTSE 100 fell 0.6 percent after a report showed UK inflation accelerated to a 10-month high. That could put pressure on the Bank of England, which had been cutting interest rates to invigorate its tepid economy. (AP)