Wednesday was a broadly negative session on Wall Street, with all four major indices closing in the red and small caps bearing the brunt of the selling pressure. The Russell 2000 led declines, dropping 1.37% to 2,865.19, signaling that investors rotated away from domestically sensitive, higher-risk names. The Dow Jones Industrial Average shed 1.13% to close at 50,505.80, while the S&P 500 slipped 0.70% to 7,549.94.
The Nasdaq Composite held up comparatively well, declining just 0.26% to 27,014.82, thanks in large part to Meta Platforms' outsized gain of 4.24% to $622.98, which provided a meaningful cushion for the tech-heavy index. Without Meta's contribution, the Nasdaq's losses would have looked much closer to the broader market's pain.
Nvidia was the session's most notable drag among mega-cap names, tumbling 3.62% to $214.75. The move unwound a portion of recent gains and rattled sentiment in the semiconductor space, which had been a key pillar of the bull run in prior weeks.
Gold continued to command attention as a safe-haven destination, with the precious metal holding firm at $4,453.94 — a level that underscores persistent investor unease about the macro backdrop even as equity markets remain elevated by historical standards.