Live Markets: Wall Street indexes go in different directions

Freeport-McMoRan

05/08/2026 21:42

U.S. indexes end mixed: Dow up ~0.5%, S&P 500 off ~0.2%, Nasdaq falls ~0.8%
Materials lead S&P 500 sector gainers; Comm Svcs weakest group
Dollar dips; U.S. crude down ~1%; bitcoin rises ~1%; gold rallies >4%
U.S. 10-year Treasury yield dips to ~4.61%
Welcome to the home for real-time coverage of markets brought to you by Reuters reporters. You can share your thoughts with us at markets.research@thomsonreuters.com
     
WALL STREET INDEXES GO IN DIFFERENT DIRECTIONS
Wall Street indexes were a mixed bag at the end of Wednesday's session with the Nasdaq composite falling after four straight days of gains with both hopes and worries about artificial intelligence on display all at once.
     The Dow .DJI boasted its third straight closing record while the S&P 500 .SPX closed below its Tuesday record. The S&P 500 growth index .IGX lost steam at the end of the day to finish below its June 1 record close yet again.   
Shares in Alphabet GOOGL.O finished down 4% and were the biggest drag on the S&P 500 after they went from green to red in a hurry following the early afternoon announcement from Google's parent of a leadership overhaul in its AI division, with AI chief Demis Hassabis leaving his main managerial role and several Gemini leaders departing the company.
Shares in online retailer and cloud services company Amazon.com AMZN.O were also a big drag with a roughly 4% loss. This was the day after a U.S. appeals court overturned a ruling that had temporarily barred Perplexity from using ​its AI-powered agentic shopping tools on Amazon's platform.
But investors were still favoring AI chip leader Nvidia NVDA.O, pushing it up 3.4% as one of the biggest gainers in the Dow and the strongest boost for the S&P 500. Its archrival AMD AMD.O was one of the biggest weights on the S&P 500 with a 7% tumble after its quarterly update, which included 50% revenue growth. 
Also, shares in Elon Musk's SpaceX SPCX.O tumbled 13.6% after the rocket and AI company's first quarterly report since its Nasdaq debut last month disappointed investors. Revenue nearly doubled thanks to booming Starlink satellite communications and AI business, but investors worried about AI spending.
Among the S&P 500's 11 major sectors, six advanced with materials .SPLRCM adding 1.5% and leading gains. At the helm in materials was International Flavors & Fragrances IFF.N, which finished up 8.9%.
IFF trimmed its annual revenue and profit forecast but excluding its food ingredients business, most of which is being sold, UBS analyst Joshua Spector says that the new guidance implies organic growth of 2-4% for 2026 vs consensus expectations for 2.8%.
Also boosting materials were gold miners Newmont Corp NEM.N, which rallied 6.7%, and Freeport-McMoRan Inc FCX.N, which finished up 3.1%, as the commodity XAU= soared more than 4%, and was eyeing its biggest daily gain since February.
The weakest sector was communication services .SPRCL, which finished down 2.4%. 
Elsewhere, U.S. crude oil settled down slightly on hopes for a reopening of the Strait of Hormuz. However, there was no immediate U.S. comment on a proposed deal between Iran and Oman that would give Tehran control over ships entering the Gulf through the strait, according to a Reuters report about the proposal, which cited a senior Iranian source and two regional officials. Meanwhile, sources told Reuters that Iran warned Gulf states that any new U.S. attack on its territory would trigger retaliation against critical energy infrastructure across the region. 
     Here is your closing snapshot:  
(Sinéad Carew)
     *****
     
EARLIER ON LIVE MARKETS:
SECOND-QUARTER US EARNINGS GROWTH NOW SET TO SURPASS Q1 LEVEL CLICK HERE
WARSH MAY WELL BE RIGHT, BUT ... CLICK HERE
BOFA CLIENTS FAVOR ETFS AS HEDGE FUNDS STEP IN TO BUY CLICK HERE
WALL STREET LOOKS UP BEYOND EARNINGS-DRIVEN SELLOFFS CLICK HERE
NASDAQ SHRUGS OFF CORRECTION FEARS, BREADTH JOINS THE REBOUND CLICK HERE
SHORT COVERING HELPS PROPEL DEFENSE STOCKS BACK TOWARD RECORD HIGHS CLICK HERE
EURO ZONE ECONOMIC SURPRISES AT A MULTI-YEAR HIGH, A BUY SIGN CLICK HERE
STOXX MUTED BUT STILL SETTING NEW RECORDS CLICK HERE
EUROPE BEFORE THE BELL: HOW HIGH CAN WE GO? CLICK HERE
MORNING BID: SEMIS FLY AGAIN AS AI CAPEX SHOOTS THE MOON CLICK HERE
     

Wall Street's main indexes mixed https://fingfx.thomsonreuters.com/gfx/mkt/egvbwexxjpq/Pasted%20image%201785961834078.png
( )