NEW YORK — A sharp slide for Walmart on Thursday helped pull Wall Street off of its record. The Standard & Poor’s 500 slipped 0.4% for its first drop after setting all-time highs in each of the last two days. The Dow Jones industrial average lost 1%, and the Nasdaq composite sank 0.5%.

NEW YORK — U.S. stocks crept to a record as the S&P 500 nudged higher after a quiet Tuesday of trading. The main measure of Wall Street’s health rose 0.2% to finish just above its all-time closing high, set last month. Most of the stocks within the index rose as it danced around the milestone through the day.

Collectively, Wall Street analysts have issued more than 12,000 individual ratings on stocks in the S&P 500. By aggregating the median fair value estimates on every company, FactSet Research builds what is known as a "bottom-up" target price for the entire index.