Dow Ends Flat After Hitting Record High; Nasdaq Falls to Kick Off July

U.S. stocks delivered a mixed performance on Wednesday, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average briefly reaching a record high before retreating, while the Nasdaq Composite came under pressure due to weakness in semiconductor stocks.

The Dow slipped 13.96 points, or 0.03%, to close at 52,305.24 after hitting a fresh intraday record of 52,742.66 earlier in the session. The pullback was largely driven by a nearly 7% drop in Caterpillar shares, which had recently benefited from AI-related optimism.

The S&P 500 declined 0.22% to finish at 7,483.23, while the Nasdaq fell 0.66% to 26,040.03 as investors locked in profits on chip stocks following a massive rally in the first half of 2026.

Micron Technology dropped more than 10%, though the stock remains up over 260% year-to-date. SanDisk also plunged more than 10%, despite still holding gains of over 750% in 2026. Meanwhile, NVIDIA and Broadcom lost around 1% and 2%, respectively.

Despite Wednesday’s weakness, major indexes remain strong for the year. In the first half of 2026, the Dow gained 8.9% — its strongest first-half performance since 2021. The S&P 500 advanced 9.6%, while the Nasdaq climbed 12.8%. The Russell 2000 surged nearly 22%, posting its best first-half performance since 1991.

Some mega-cap tech stocks helped limit losses. Meta jumped nearly 9% after announcing plans to launch a cloud business and monetize excess computing power. Microsoft gained 3%, while Apple rose nearly 2%.

Investors also monitored comments from Kevin Warsh at the European Central Bank conference in Lisbon. While he avoided signaling policy direction ahead of this month’s meeting, he emphasized ongoing inflation concerns, noting that prices remain elevated.