(Bloomberg) — Stocks struggled to make headway, following a furious post-election rally that spurred calls for a breather amid signs of buyer fatigue.

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Equities wavered near all-time highs, with the S&P 500 remaining close to technically overbought levels. That’s after a surge that drove the benchmark gauge up 25% this year. Several measures highlight strong trader optimism, including the latest figures from the American Association of Individual Investors, which showed a spike in bullish sentiment last week.

“The stock market is showing signs that it’s getting ‘tired’,” said Matt Maley at Miller Tabak + Co. “It could be due for a bit of a pullback soon — which would actually be normal and healthy.”

Just hours ahead of Jerome Powell’s speech on Thursday, traders waded through economic data. US producer prices picked up in October, fueled in part by gains in portfolio management and other categories that feed into the Federal Reserve’s preferred inflation gauge. Applications for unemployment benefits fell to the lowest level since May.

“The question we have is whether Powell’s dovishness will reset the tone for higher long rates. On that question alone, we say ‘no for now’,” noted Andrew Brenner at NatAlliance Securities. “But he will continue to support Fed easing in the near term, and even that will have a limited effect.”

The S&P 500 was little changed. Most megacaps fell, while banks climbed. Cisco Systems Inc. dropped 1.2% on a conservative annual forecast. Walt Disney Co. jumped 10% on a profit beat. The Nasdaq 100 slid 0.2%. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fluctuated.

Treasury 10-year yields declined three basis points to 4.42%. The Bloomberg Dollar Spot Index rose 0.1%.

Corporate Highlights:

• Meta Platforms Inc. was hit with a €798 million ($841 million) fine by European Union regulators by tying its Facebook Marketplace service to its sprawling social network, the US tech giant’s first ever penalty for EU antitrust violations.

• ASML Holding NV, the Dutch maker of advanced chip-making machines that are critical to global supply chains, reaffirmed its long-term revenue outlook as it bets on an artificial intelligence-driven boom in semiconductor demand.

• Merck & Co. licensed an experimental cancer antibody from a closely held Chinese company in a deal worth $588 million upfront, plus as much as $2.7 billion in milestone payments.

• General Mills Inc., known for cereal brands such as Cheerios, made its fifth acquisition in the pet food sector since 2018 by buying the North American unit of Whitebridge Pet Brands in a deal valued at $1.45 billion.

• Tapestry Inc. is planning to buy back $6.1 billion of bonds it sold to fund its now blocked purchase of Capri Holdings, after abandoning the deal due to antitrust pressure.

• JD.com Inc.’s quarterly revenue rose 5.1%, a moderate expansion that suggests Chinese consumers are only cautiously spending again as Beijing tries to revitalize the economy.

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