U.S. stocks finished mixed as investors cashing out bets on high-flying technology and artificial intelligence companies continued to rotate into beaten-down sectors of the market Wednesday, with marked gains for travel companies and home builders.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 182.06 points, or 0.35%, to 51848.90. The S&P 500 lost 7.24 points, or 0.1%, to 7358.22, and the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite declined 110.40 points, or 0.43%, to 25476.64.
"The problem is a lot of investors are buying things simply because they're up without understanding why they're buying it or what they're buying for that matter," said Oliver Pursche, senior vice president at financial advisory Wealthspire.
The yield on the two-year Treasury fell 0.061 percentage point to 4.136%. The yield on the 10-year note declined 0.094 percentage point to 4.400%.
The SPDR Homebuilders exchange-traded fund rose 5.6% to $114.28 on an anticipated drop in mortgage rates. The war-related increase in rates has weighed on housing-market activity. Sales of new single-family homes fell to 580,000 in May, from 626,000 in April, according to a Wednesday tally from the Census Bureau and the Housing and Urban Development Department.
West Texas Intermediate oil futures continued their precipitous decline, briefly descending below the $70-per-barrel milestone. Oil closed down 3.9% at $70.34 a barrel. Reports of increased tanker traffic through the Strait of Hormuz offset a 6.1 million-barrel drop in U.S. commercial inventories.
The price of jet fuel in the U.S. fell to $2.81 a gallon, according to Argus Media. As prices neared the $2.50-a-gallon level from Feb. 27, the day before the commencement of war in Iran, airlines added to gains. The U.S. Global Jets exchange-traded fund, which tracks an index of major airlines, rose $1.30, or 4.2%, to $32.48. Online travel agency Booking.com rose $12.33, or 7.3%, to $181.28.
The AI wobbles continued.
Skeptics have raised several questions about the AI boom. Some question whether the multi-trillion dollar wave of data-center investment can ever be covered by sales of AI products. Even if AI turns out to be wildly profitable, there are question marks about valuations. And AI operations at companies such as Microsoft, Oracle and Salesforce.com could end up hurting other franchises at those companies.
The PHLX "SOX" Semiconductor Sector Index, which has become a barometer of investor sentiment on AI, fell 24.31, or 0.18%, to 13458.19, following a 7.9% drop Tuesday.
Even as the AI backlash hit the stock market, chip makers and data-center developers continued to raise capital and make acquisitions, doubling down on the boom.
Qualcomm agreed to acquire the AI software company Modular for about $3.9 billion, in a bid to make AI faster and cheaper for its customers.
South Korea's SK Hynix plans to raise more than $29 billion through a U.S. listing, one of the largest ever share sales that's designed to fund its AI expansion.
The rotation out of tech was also evident in financial stocks Wednesday. Blue Owl, Blackstone, Apollo Global Management and Ares Management all fell by 4.9% or more. The concentration of private credit in the technology sector during a period of upheaval there has prompted waves of redemption requests in the niche. Investors asked to redeem about 16.8% of their shares from Apollo's flagship retail-focused private-credit fund in the second quarter, according to a Monday filing.
In contrast, the State Street SPDR S&P Regional Banking exchange-traded fund, a basket of regional banks, tested multiyear highs Wednesday, rising 85 cents, or 1.2%, to $73.97.
Investors retreated from other high-risk corners of the market. Strategy fell to multiyear lows as the software company's mounting losses on a multibillion dollar hoard of bitcoin triggered concerns about its credit position. Bitcoin tested two-year lows around $60,000.
The U.S. Dollar Index added to gains, hitting 13-month highs. Earlier this week, the Japanese yen traded near a 40-year low against the greenback. For much of 2026, hedge funds had piled into the "dollar debasement" trade, betting the U.S. central bank would cut interest rates more aggressively than other nations. That was a primary driver for the rally in gold and silver prices. Now the trade is reversing itself as markets price in Federal Reserve rate hikes. Gold futures fell $139.60 per troy ounce, or 3.38% to $3990.30 on Wednesday, closing more than 25% below their 2026 record highs. Silver futures fell 6.4% to $58.05 a troy ounce, and are now down about 50% from their January high.
Write to Rob Curran at rob.curran@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
June 24, 2026 17:11 ET (21:11 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2026 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
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