Wall Street's main indexes were mixed on Wednesday, with the Dow notching a record-high close and the Nasdaq losing ground as investors rotated out of pricey technology stocks while focusing on a likely end to a historic U.S. government shutdown.
The House of Representatives was set to end the longest government shutdown in U.S. history, with a vote on a stopgap funding package to restart disrupted food assistance, pay hundreds of thousands of federal workers and revive a hobbled air traffic control system.
Market Snapshot
The S&P 500 climbed 0.06% to end the session at 6,850.92 points. The Nasdaq declined 0.26% to 23,406.46 points, while the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 0.68% to 48,254.82 points. BigBear.ai Holdings rose 18%; SanDisk Corp. up 4%; Eli Lilly up 3%; Palantir Technologies Inc., Oracle fell 4%; Tesla Motors fell 2%.
Market Movers
Advanced Micro Devices climbed 9% after its Financial Analyst Day on Tuesday. After the market closed, Chief Financial Officer Jean Hu said AMD expects to increase its operating margin to more than 35% over the next three to five years, from 24% this year, resulting in a "clear path" to annual earnings of more than $20 a share. Wall Street had been forecasting 2028 earnings of $10.18 a share.
Oklo was up 7%, even though the nuclear start-up reported a wider-than-expected loss of 20 cents a share in its third quarter, compared with the loss of 13 cents analysts had anticipated. On Tuesday, the company said it had made progress on its first nuclear-fuel fabrication plant and expanded its partnership with Idaho National Laboratory.
Circle tumbled 12%. The stablecoin issuer scored an earnings beat but updated its full-year outlook to reflect higher expenses. Circle now expects $495 million to $510 million in operating expenses in 2025, up from $475 million to $490 million.
On Holding AG surged 18% after the Swiss sneaker maker topped Wall Street's profit and revenue targets and raised its full-year guidance for net sales and earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization, or Ebitda.
BILL HOLDINGS INC jumped 11%. The business-payments company is exploring options including a sale, Bloomberg reported, citing people familiar with the matter. Bill didn't immediately respond to a request for comment from Barron's.
USA Rare Earth fell 5%. The company said Wednesday that the U.K. has signed off on its purchase of Less Common Metals. USA Rare Earth agreed to buy the metal and alloy manufacturer for $100 million and 6.74 million shares in September.
Cybersecurity stock Fortinet declined 2% after a downgrade. Daiwa Securities cut its rating to Neutral from Outperform, and lowered its price target to $80 from $86.
Chevron fell 2%. The energy company said Wednesday it expects to begin deploying power plants by 2027 to feed data centers in West Texas.
AT&T Inc gained 2% after an upgrade. KeyBanc analyst Brandon Nispel raised his rating to Overweight from Sector Weight with a $30 price target. Nispel argued on Tuesday that AT&T is better positioned than its rivals to offerihistorically separate networks on a single platform.
Market News
US House Takes Step Toward Ending Longest Government Shutdown in History
The House of Representatives took a procedural step toward ending the longest government shutdown in U.S. history on Wednesday, advancing a stopgap funding package to restart disrupted food assistance, pay hundreds of thousands of federal workers and revive a hobbled air-traffic control system.
The Republican-controlled chamber voted 213-209 to move towards a final vote on the measure, with President Donald Trump's support largely keeping his party together in the face of vehement opposition from House Democrats, who are angry that a long standoff launched by their Senate colleagues failed to secure a deal to extend federal health insurance subsidies.
Meta Breaks Ground on $1B AI Data Center in Wisconsin Utilizing Dry-Cooling Technology
Meta Platforms (META) has broken ground on its artificial intelligence data center in Beaver Dam, Wis., marking it as its 30th global data center, the Facebook creator announced today.
Beaver Dam is located about 50 miles northeast of Madison. Meta is underwriting about $200M in energy infrastructure investments to power the center. It is working with Alliant Energy (LNT) to supply the electricity.
