Wall Street's three major indexes closed mixed Wednesday as profit-taking in technology stocks weighed on the market following a four-session winning streak.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 263.24 points, or 0.49 percent, to close at 54,349.12 on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) on Wednesday (local time). The S&P 500 fell 12.97 points, or 0.17 percent, to 7,723.55, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite dropped 221.55 points, or 0.83 percent, to 26,363.44.
The S&P 500, which had set an all-time closing high on Wednesday, briefly pushed to a fresh intraday record early in the session before reversing course and ultimately finishing lower.
Markets were watching for signs of progress on the Strait of Hormuz. Iran said it had reached agreement on the geographic coordinates of a proposed shipping route in negotiations with Oman over the strait. However, investors adopted a wait-and-see stance, looking for further developments in the Middle East before committing.
Oil prices were mixed. Brent crude futures settled at $79.45 per barrel, up 0.1 percent from the previous session. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) futures settled at $75.22 per barrel, down 0.7 percent.
"It's only natural that Wall Street is taking a breather," Jose Torres, senior economist at Interactive Brokers, told Bloomberg.
Technology stocks broadly underperformed. Alphabet, Google's parent company, fell 4.06 percent after news broke that Jeff Dean, a scientist widely regarded as a legend at Google, was leaving the company.
AMD tumbled 7.04 percent. The chipmaker had reported better-than-expected earnings after Wednesday's close, but its forward sales outlook fell short of investor expectations.
SpaceX tumbled 13.61 percent in its first earnings release since listing, as concerns over heavy capital expenditure came to the fore. The expiration of a lock-up period beginning Thursday added further downward pressure on the share price.
Nvidia rose 3.44 percent after SpaceX said it would use only Nvidia chips to build its data center infrastructure.
SK Hynix's American depositary receipts (ADR) closed down 2.17 percent.
Pharmaceutical company Eli Lilly rose 4.86 percent after raising its full-year sales outlook on the back of growing demand for its obesity treatment.
moon@heraldcorp.com
