Wall Street Today, DJIA Hits Record High, but Nasdaq Comp Falls as TSLA, META, SNDK, MU Sink

The Dow industrials closed at an all-time high Thursday as non-tech stocks like McDonald's and Disney rose, but the Nasdaq Composite fell as tech giants like Tesla, Meta, Sandisk, Marvell and Micron sank.

The $Dow Jones Industrial Average (.DJI.US)$ rose 594.83 points (1.1%) to a 52,899.42 best-ever finish, beating a record set just one day earlier. The blue-chip index also briefly hit an all-time high shortly before dthe close.

The $S&P 500 Index (.SPX.US)$ likewise inched up 0.01 points to 7,483.24, but the $Nasdaq Composite Index (.IXIC.US)$ shed 207.36 ticks (0.8%) to 25,832.67.

Macro

The Dow gained ground on strength for tech giant $Apple (AAPL.US)$ (up 4.8%), plus an apparent investor rotation into non-tech Dow members like $McDonald's (MCD.US)$ (4.2% higher) an $Disney (DIS.US)$ (4% better).

Non-techs rose in part on a weaker-than-expected U.S. jobs report that boosted hopes the Federal Reserve won't raise interest rates any time soon – good news for equities investors, who typically favor lower rates.

The Labor Department reported that the U.S. economy added 57,000 non-farm jobs last month – well below the 115,000 economists had expected. The jobless rate also fell to 4.2% from the 4.3% economists had forecast.

The gains by non-tech Dow members offset weakness ahead of the close for DJIA tech components like $Cisco (CSCO.US)$ (down 3.7%) and $NVIDIA (NVDA.US)$ (1.4% lower).

Meanwhile, the S&P 500 and Nasdaq Comp sank on a broad-based sell-off for Big Techs, including many stocks in the "Magnificent Seven" group or related to the artificial-intelligence buildout.

Major tech decliners included Mag-7 stock $Tesla (TSLA.US)$, which fell 7.5%.

The electric-vehicle giant gave back part of a 13.4% rise it saw over the four sessions ahead of Thursday's release of quarterly Q2 production anddelivery numbers. TSLA fell even though the numbers came in higher than analysts had expected.

Fellow Mag-7 member $Meta Platforms (META.US)$ likewise sank 4.9% as it gave back part of Wednesday's 8.8% gain, which stemmed from a report that the Facebook parent plans to lease excess computing space to other firms.

While Meta rallied Wednesday on word of the plan, the news send multiple AI-related stocks falling both Wednesday and Thursday on concerns that cloud-computing supply might exceed current demand.

Major AI-related decliners Thursday included $SanDisk (SNDK.US)$ (down 14.1%), $Applied Optoelectronics (AAOI.US)$ (off 13%), $Corning (GLW.US)$ (10.8% lower), $IREN Ltd (IREN.US)$ (10.4% weaker), $Western Digital (WDC.US)$ (9.9% weaker), $Marvell Technology (MRVL.US)$ (off 9.8%) and $Applied Materials (AMAT.US)$ (which lost 7.3%).

Other AI-related stocks to fall by lesser amounts included $Nokia Oyj (NOK.US)$ (6.6% softer),$NEBIUS (NBIS.US)$ (5.9% weaker), $Micron Technology (MU.US)$ (off 5.5%), $Intel (INTC.US)$ (down 5.3%), $CoreWeave (CRWV.US)$ (4.6% lower) and $Advanced Micro Devices (AMD.US)$ (which gave back 4.3%).

Elsewhere in markets, cryptocurrencies rose as Thursday's weak jobs numbers eased inflation fears.

Cryptocurrency investors sometimes use cryptos as dollar hedges amid inflation risks, but other times see lower inflation as a boon for "risk-off" investments.

$Bitcoin (BTC.CC)$ rose 2.3% to $61,500.40 as of about 3:30 p.m. New York time, while $Ethereum (ETH.CC)$ added 4.9% to $1.696.77, $Solana (SOL.CC)$ rose 4.9% to $80.89 and $Ripple (XRP.CC)$ gained 2.2% to $1.08.

Moo-vers

The Mag-7 stocks took their cue from the Nasdaq Composite and mostly fell.

$Tesla (TSLA.US)$, $Meta Platforms (META.US)$ and $NVIDIA (NVDA.US)$ led the Mag-7's losers with their previously noted declines of 7.5%, 4.9% and 1.4%, respectively.

Other Mag-7 stocks to fall included $Alphabet-A (GOOGL.US)$, which eased 0.4%.

Conversely, $Apple (AAPL.US)$ led Thursday's Mag-7's winners with its aforementioned 4.8% gain. Other Mag-7 stocks to rise included $Microsoft (MSFT.US)$ (1.6% firmer) and $Amazon (AMZN.US)$ (which added 0.4%).

Stocks to see significant percentage gains elsewhere on Wall Street included:

-- Select crypto-related stocks, which rose in part in sympathy with cryptocurrencies' gains. Winners included $Strategy (MSTR.US)$ (up 7.9%), $Coinbase (COIN.US)$ (3.9% better) and $Robinhood (HOOD.US)$ (which added 3.8%).

-- $Circle (CRCL.US)$, 4.3% better. The stablecoin firm partially rebounded after falling 18.4% over two days on word $Visa (V.US)$, $MasterCard (MA.US)$, $IBM Corp (IBM.US)$ and other tech and financial giants have teamed up to launch a new stablecoin to compete with Circle's $USD Coin (USDC.CC)$. Separately, mega-investor Cathie Wood's Ark Invest disclosed that it bought $17.8 million of CRCL shares on Wednesday.

Meanwhile, Thursday's noteworthy percentage decliners included:

-- $Bloom Energy (BE.US)$, off 6.4% Thursday and 10.5% over two sessions. The fuel-cell firm gave back part of a 20.1% gain that it enjoyed Monday and Tuesday as its sector rose on rival $FuelCell Energy (FCEL.US)$ receiving a $49 million U.S. Export-Import Bank financing package.

Markets will remain closed Friday for the U.S. Independence Day holiday. Regular trading will resume on Monday.

Disclaimer: This presentation is for informational and educational use only and is not a recommendation or endorsement of any particular investment or investment strategy. Indexes are unmanaged and cannot be directly invested in. Past performance is no indication of future results. Investing involves risk and the potential to lose principal. Investment information provided in this content is general in nature, strictly for illustrative purposes, and may not be appropriate for all investors. It is provided without respect to individual investors' financial sophistication, financial situation, investment objectives, investing time horizon, or risk tolerance. You should consider the appropriateness of this information regarding your relevant personal circumstances before making any investment decisions. Past investment performance does not indicate or guarantee future success. Returns will vary, and all investments carry risks, including loss of principal.

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