Stock market today: Wall Street ticks closer to record heights ahead of a highly anticipated speech

NEW YORK (AP) — U.S. stocks are ticking higher Thursday as Wall Street counts down to what's supposed to be the main event of the week, a speech by Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell coming on Friday. The S&P 500 was 0.3% higher in early trading, just 0.5% below its all-time high set last month. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 105 points, or 0.3%, as of 9:35 a.m. Eastern time and the Nasdaq composite was 0.4% higher. Treasury yields were also ticking higher in the bond market despite a report showing slightly more U.S. workers applied for unemployment…