1. Jul 2026
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(AWP Alliance News) - The Dow Jones achieved a new record close on Wednesday as traders sold off semiconductor stocks ahead of the June nonfarm payrolls report on Thursday.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed down 13.96 points 52,305.24. The S&P 500 fell 16.13 points, 0.2%, to 7,483.23. The Nasdaq Composite ended down 173.69 points, 0.7%, at 26,040.03.
"The 'Great Rotation' trade persists into [the third quarter] as the blue boring names of the Dow Jones continue to attract inflows directly from recent profit taking money from tech stocks," Jeff Kilburg, founder and chief executive officer of KKM Financial, told CNBC. "This is extremely healthy and underscores the broadening breadth of equities for this continued bull market in its fourth year."
Chip stocks ended mostly lower as Nvidia lost 1.3%, Broadcom fell 2.2% and AMD declined 6.9%. Memory stocks Micron and SanDisk tumbled 11%, while Western Digital lost 6.3%.
Meta shares jumped 8.8% on Wednesday after Bloomberg reported plans to compete with Amazon Web Services, Microsoft's Azure and Alphabet's Google Cloud.
Meta plans to monetize its excess computing capacity, aiming to sell its own internally designed AI models to business customers for their own uses, Bloomberg said.
Meta's large cap peers closed mostly higher, Microsoft rose 3.0%, Amazon gained 1.4% and Alphabet rose 1.3%. Elon Musk's Tesla climbed 1.1%, while SpaceX shed 7.8%.
General Motors on Wednesday said vehicle sales in the second quarter declined 4% on-year to 714,896, representing "the smaller EV market, discontinued vehicles and some inventory constraints."
"Our business is performing well, and customer demand is resilient, especially for our trucks and SUVs. The depth, breadth and appeal of our vehicle portfolio allows us to lead the market in sales, while maintaining discipline on inventory, pricing and incentives to deliver strong margins," said president Duncan Aldred.
GM shares declined 2.0%.
Nike shares popped 4.9% on Wednesday following fourth quarter results, but said progress will "continue to be uneven" as it hopes for a long-awaited rebound.
Nike said net income ballooned to USD1.07 billion in the three months to May 31 from USD211 million the year prior.
Basic and diluted earnings per share climbed to USD0.72 from USD0.14 a year ago, including a USD0.52 benefit related to the expected recovery of the International Emergency Economic Powers Act tariffs. Visible Alpha consensus looked for EPS of USD0.11 excluding the tariff impact.
Revenue edged down to USD10.97 billion when compared with USD11.10 billion a year ago, and fell 2% at constant currency rates, but beat consensus of USD10.84 billion.
Jefferies analyst Randal Konik called the results "better-than-feared" with revenue and earnings per share ahead of consensus and meaningful gross upside driven by tariff recovery.
"Work will take time to scale and translate into consistent results," Chief Executive Elliott Hill told analysts on the earnings call.
US President Donald Trump on Wednesday praised indirect talks between the US and Iran in Qatar as "very good meetings".
"As far as things are going, the denuclearisation of Iran is moving along well," Trump added.
Iran has insisted there would be no direct negotiations between the sides in the Qatari capital on the two parties' memorandum of understanding aimed at ending the Middle East war.
Despite the MoU, unions and shipping companies said on Wednesday that they would continue to designate the Strait of Hormuz as a warlike operations area, after two ships were attacked on Thursday and Saturday last week despite a ceasefire between Iran and the US.
"This decision recognises the continuing and significant risk to life and the rapidly evolving situation in the area," said a joint statement by International Transport Workers' Federation, ITF, union and the Joint Negotiating Group, JNG, an umbrella organisation representing shipping owners.
A barrel of Brent was quoted at USD71.29 late Wednesday, down from USD72.92 on Tuesday. West Texas Intermediate eased to USD68.22 from USD70.10.
The Institute for Supply Management on Wednesday said its June manufacturing purchasing managers' index decreased to 53.3 from 54 in May, missing the FXStreet-cited consensus for no change.
The new orders index decreased to 56 from 56.8, and the manufacturing prices paid index fell to 73 from 82.1, missing the consensus estimate of a smaller decline to 79. However, the employment index rose to 49.7 from 48.6 points.
Separately, the seasonally adjusted S&P Global US manufacturing PMI declined to 53.9 in June from 55.1 in May, marking its eleventh consecutive month above the 50.0-point mark separating growth from contraction. However, the pace of growth eased to a three-month low.
June's reading missed the FXStreet-cited consensus, which was for an increase to a 49-month high of 55.7, matching the flash estimate published on June 23.
ADP on Wednesday said private employment increased 98,000 jobs on a monthly basis in June, slowed from an increase of 122,000 in May. The change was below the increase of 113,000 pencilled in by FXStreet-cited consensus.
The yield on the 10-year US Treasury widened to 4.48% on Wednesday from 4.44%. The 30-year yield rose to 4.97% from 4.93%.
Against the dollar, the euro was at USD1.1380 on Wednesday, down from USD1.1425 on Tuesday. Sterling rose to USD1.3281 from USD1.3265. Against the yen, the dollar fell slightly to JPY162.53 from JPY162.57.
Gold rose to USD4,054.05 an ounce late Wednesday from USD4,020.25 on Tuesday.
In Europe, London's FTSE 100 closed down 0.2%. The DAX 40 in Frankfurt rose 0.2% and the CAC 40 declined 0.8% in Paris.
In China, the Shanghai Composite ended up 0.4%. The Nikkei 225 in Tokyo rose 0.6%, as did the S&P/ASX 200 in Sydney. Markets in Hong Kong were closed for Administrative Region Establishment Day
Thursday's global economic diary has US total vehicle sales and the June US nonfarm payrolls report.
By Aidan Lane, Alliance News reporter
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