Thursday's session painted a divided picture on Wall Street, with the major indices splitting along growth-versus-value lines. The Nasdaq bore the brunt of the selling pressure, tumbling 1.34% to close at 27,137.15, weighed down by weakness in high-multiple technology names. The S&P 500 followed with a more modest decline of 0.42%, settling at 7,747.04, while the Dow Jones Industrial Average managed to eke out a slim gain of 0.12%, closing at 50,842.66. The Russell 2000 was nearly flat, dipping just 0.05% to 2,764.6.
Nvidia was the session's most visible casualty, dropping 2.94% to $230.48 in a sign that even the AI darling is not immune to profit-taking when sentiment sours. The move rippled across the semiconductor and AI infrastructure space, amplifying the Nasdaq's underperformance relative to its blue-chip counterparts.
Apple proved a notable exception, rising 1.11% to $340.42 and offering investors a defensive port in the tech storm. The stock's relative strength suggested that institutional money was rotating within the tech sector rather than abandoning it wholesale.
Gold continued its remarkable ascent, with the precious metal closing at $4,134.53, underscoring a persistent bid for hard assets as equity sentiment remains fragile heading into the back half of the week.