Wall Street ends mixed; chip stocks surge, Nasdaq 100 up

Major U.S. equity benchmarks finished Tuesday on a mixed note, as gains in semiconductor and certain tech stocks contrasted with slight drops across most main indexes.

The Nasdaq 100 bucked the trend with a rise of 0.21%. The Nasdaq Composite edged down 0.09%, the S&P 500 lost 0.17%, the Dow dropped 132 points, and the Russell 2000 posted the steepest decline among the five gauges, falling 0.35%.

While the index-level moves were modest, several individual stocks saw notable advances. Applied Materials, Marvell, KLA, Arm and ASML all recorded strong gains, and Meta climbed more than 3%. Traders focused on those names even as the wider market had difficulty pushing ahead.

U.S. stock closing figures

• Dow Industrial Average: ended at 51,355.13, down 132.03 points (-0.26%).

• S&P 500: closed at 7,670.85, down 12.85 points (-0.17%).

• Nasdaq Composite: finished at 26,797.54, down 22.84 points (-0.09%).

• Russell 2000: settled at 2,807.92, down 9.99 points (-0.35%).

• Nasdaq 100: rose 62.52 points (+0.21%) to 30,339.33.

Semiconductor and tech names lead the day

• Applied Materials: closed at $512.01, up 5.19%.

• Marvell Technology: ended at $263.27, up 4.51%.

• KLA: settled at $196.53, up 3.89%.

• Arm Holdings: closed at $293.67, up 3.65%.

• ASML: finished at $1,834.39, up 3.56%.

• Lam Research: ended at $323.86, up 2.99%.

In other moves, Lumentum added 5.66%, settling at $973.49, and Coherent climbed 3.46% to $292.21. Meta rose 3.26%, ending at $738.96.

Bloom Energy also caught attention, gaining $28.38 to close at $291.25.

The increases far exceeded those of the major indexes. Yet the strength in a cluster of tech stocks did not lift both Nasdaq measures. The Nasdaq 100 finished in positive territory, while the wider Nasdaq Composite edged down.

This difference is significant. While some areas saw aggressive buying, the index outcomes did not point to a widespread upward shift.

Technical analysis view

The S&P 500 ended between its 100-hour and 200-hour moving averages of 7.667.20 and 7676.00, a neutral position. Tuesday's back-and-forth action could make Wednesday a pivotal session.

The Nasdaq also sits in a neutral zone between 26,676 and 26,856, with the close at 26,797.54.

Trading takeaway: Look past the main index

For less experienced traders, Tuesday offers a clear example of how an index and a single stock can paint very different pictures.

While the Nasdaq Composite ended in the red, a handful of chip and tech stocks rose between 3% and 6%. An index aggregates the returns of numerous companies, each with a different weighting, so powerful advances in a few names can be canceled out by declines in others.

The key lesson is to examine both the overall market and the specific stock. Relative strength can reveal where buyers are active. Then the stock's own technical levels determine the direction and risk.