Wall Street indexes post closing record highs, AI rally pauses
NEW YORK: Rising healthcare and consumer stocks lifted the Dow Jones Industrial Average on Wednesday to a record closing high, while the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq were steady, as investors took a pause from the AI-led rally while cautiously watching Middle East peace talks.
Fractional gains were enough to push the S&P 500 index and Nasdaq to closing record highs for the second day in a row.
Banking stocks were down as shares of JPMorgan Chase slid 2.4% after CEO Jamie Dimon warned that expenses this year could be US$1 billion higher than estimated.
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said there has been some progress in negotiations with Iran toward a deal. Yet President Donald Trump said the US and Iran still have issues to resolve and Iran’s Fars News has said unresolved issues remain.
The Dow, which also hit closing highs on Friday and Thursday, was lifted by a rotation into healthcare and consumer stocks. Procter & Gamble shares rose 3.2%. UnitedHealth climbed 1.9%.
A pullback in chip stocks weighed on the tech-heavy Nasdaq.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 182.60 points, or 0.36%, to 50,644.28, the S&P 500 gained 1.24 points, or 0.02%, to 7,520.36 and the Nasdaq Composite gained 18.55 points, or 0.07%, to 26,674.74.
“After such a large run-up in the markets, it’s not surprising to me that there is a little bit of a pause,” said Sean Clark, chief investment officer of Clark Capital Management Group.
“There’s a lot of positives to look at right now. Even though the outperformers are really being driven by tech, AI and AI-adjacent themes, I wouldn’t discount the fact that the broad market is participating as well.”
Among the sub-indexes, consumer discretionary was leading the gains, up 1.9%.
Meanwhile, the S&P 500 energy index fell 1.5%, tracking a decline of as much as 5% in oil prices. Tech shares dropped after reaching an all-time high on Tuesday.
Chip stocks were down after a strong rally. Intel fell 1.4% and Marvell Technology dropped 4.6%, while Qualcomm fell 6% after sharp gains on Tuesday.
Chip giant Nvidia weakened by 1% and the Philadelphia SE Semiconductor index lost 1.4% after hitting a record high on Tuesday.
“Technology leadership remains difficult to ignore, with the sector continuing to push to new highs on both an absolute and relative basis compared to the broader market,” said Adam Turnquist, chief technical strategist at LPL Financial.
“That said, increasingly stretched momentum conditions and elevated positioning raise questions around the near-term durability of the advance.”
Zscaler tumbled 31.5% after the cloud security firm projected fourth-quarter revenue below expectations.
Among other movers, GlobalFoundries fell 9.8% after Bloomberg News reported that majority owner Mubadala Investment Company was seeking to raise US$1.91 billion from an unregistered block sale of GFS shares.
Bath & Body Works jumped 9.7% after reporting first-quarter sales and profit above expectations, while Abercrombie & Fitch advanced on posting a strong quarterly profit.
Goldman Sachs raised its 2026 year-end forecast for the S&P 500 to 8,000 from 7,600, citing continued strength in corporate earnings.
Markets will next look toward the personal consumption expenditures index data on Thursday. The Federal Reserve’s key inflation measure could provide fresh clues on the monetary policy path forward under new chair Kevin Warsh.
Advancing issues outnumbered decliners by a 1.13-to-1 ratio on the NYSE. There were 453 new highs and 99 new lows on the NYSE.
On the Nasdaq, 2,420 stocks rose and 2,498 fell as declining issues outnumbered advancers by a 1.03-to-1 ratio.
The S&P 500 posted 37 new 52-week highs and 8 new lows while the Nasdaq Composite recorded 169 new highs and 74 new lows.
Volume on US exchanges was 18.81 billion shares, compared with the 18.78 billion average for the full session over the last 20 trading days.
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