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 US government shutdown.
The US House of Representatives was set to end the longest government shutdown in US 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.
Still, President Donald Trump will have to sign the compromise into law.
"That should be positive from a sentiment standpoint, removing one of the key risks that's out there. As well, the proper functioning of the federal government and the FAA (Federal Aviation Administration) and airline system is important to the operation of the real economy," said Bill Northey, senior investment director at US Bank Wealth Management, in Billings, Montana.
Gains of about 3.5 per cent each in Goldman Sachs and UnitedHealth Group lifted the Dow to a record-high close for a second straight day. The index is up about 13 per cent in 2025, lagging a nearly 17 per cent rise in the S&P 500.
Tech stocks lose ground
Some of Wall Street's tech-related heavyweights lost ground. Tesla fell 2.1 per cent, Palantir lost 3.6 per cent and Oracle declined 3.9 per cent. AMD rallied 9.0 per cent after the chip designer unveiled a $US100 billion ($A153 billion) data-centre revenue target.
"We have seen somewhat of a rotation away from Nasdaq-heavy leadership toward other areas of the market doing pretty well, like healthcare and financials," said Matt Stucky, chief equity portfolio manager at Northwestern Mutual.
"A critical component for seeing markets broaden out is having earnings broaden out as well." SoftBank Group's $US5.8 billion ($A8.9 billion) sale of its Nvidia stake jolted stock markets on Tuesday, stoking fears that the frenzy around artificial intelligence may have peaked, especially after recent warnings from Wall Street bank chiefs and a famed short seller. Nvidia's quarterly report next Wednesday will be a key test of investor sentiment around AI.
The S&P 500 climbed 0.06 per cent to end the session at 6,850.92 points.
The Nasdaq declined 0.26 per cent to 23,406.46 points, while the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 0.68 per cent to 48,254.82 points.
The government shutdown has weighed on the economy and created a data gap for both the Federal Reserve and traders, leaving them reliant on private economic indicators.
