Major United States benchmark averages finished mixed on Tuesday (Wednesday AEST), as investors rotated out of technology stocks.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average added 400.2 points, or 0.9%, to 44,495, the S&P 500 closed slightly lower, down 6.9 points, or 0.1%, at 6,198.0, while the Nasdaq Composite slid 0.8% to 20,202.89.
The shift reflected a portfolio rebalancing as the new quarter began, with traders favouring healthcare over tech.
Amgen climbed 4.1%, and UnitedHealth added 4.5%, while Merck and Johnson & Johnson added 3.4% and 2.1%, respectively.
In contrast, NVIDIA fell 3%, Microsoft dipped 1.1%, AMD shed 4.1%, and Meta Platforms declined 2.6%, dragging the tech-heavy Nasdaq lower.
Tesla also fell 5.3% following a Truth Social post from Donald Trump urging scrutiny of government subsidies to Elon Musk’s businesses. Musk recently slammed Trump’s tax-and-spending bill as “utterly insane and destructive”.
The bill, which passed the Senate 51–50, now heads to the House.
On the data front, U.S. job openings unexpectedly rose by 374,000 to 7.77 million in May, signalling resilient labour demand, though a slowdown in hiring suggested the market may be cooling amid uncertainty surrounding the Trump administration’s tariffs, with a 90-day reprieve on higher duties nearing its end.
Meanwhile, Fed Chair Jerome Powell, speaking in Portugal, noted rate cuts would have occurred were it not for tariffs:
"In effect, we went on hold when we saw the size of the tariffs and essentially all inflation forecasts for the United States went up materially as a consequence of the tariffs.”
The S&P 500 finished Q2 up 11.6%, with the Nasdaq gaining nearly 17.4%, and the Dow adding 6.6%.
On the bond markets, 10-year and 2-year rates were up 0.2% and 1.2% to 4.242% and 3.772%, respectively.
