The Nasdaq had closed at a record on Wednesday, lifted by a climb in large-cap tech and consumer discretionary names, while the Dow and S&P 500 were hemmed in as concerns over an escalation in the US-China trade skirmish simmered.

Twenty-First Century Fox Inc climbed 7.5 per cent after Walt Disney Co, up 1 per cent, sweetened its offer for some of the company's assets to $71.3 billion, looking to topple Comcast Corp's bid, up 1.8 per cent.

The S&P 500 snapped a three-session losing streak, as gains in media stocks helped send the consumer discretionary sector up 0.5 per cent. Names such as Facebook Inc up 2.3 per cent, part of the so-called “FAANG” group, also rose. Alphabet advanced 0.5 per cent and Amazon.com Inc rose 0.9 per cent.

Shares in those companies have been relatively unaffected by trade worries, with four of the five names hitting intraday records on Wednesday. The S&P tech sector was 0.3 percent higher.

“Part of it might be people were selling stocks the past couple of days in order of where they see tariff priority,” said JJ Kinahan, chief market strategist at TD Ameritrade in Chicago.

“The FAANG stocks in general seem to be sort of a point of really digging in, they are not the low-hanging fruit, that would be Boeing, Caterpillar and Deere.”

Shares in Boeing Co , which has acted as a proxy for trade fears, rose 0.5 per cent after six straight declines and kept the Dow near the unchanged mark. The planemaker was considering plans of a new mid-market jet that could enter service in 2025.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 42.41 points, or 0.17 per cent, to 24,657.8, the S&P 500 gained 4.73 points, or 0.17 per cent, to 2,767.32 and the Nasdaq Composite added 55.93 points, or 0.72 per cent, to 7,781.52.

Tariff threat against China

Markets skidded on Tuesday after President Donald Trump's latest tariff threats against Chinese goods rang alarm bells over an escalating US-China trade spat.

The United States is also under fire from other countries for its protectionist measures. The European Union will start charging import duties of 25 per cent on a range of US products from Friday after Washington imposed tariffs on EU steel and aluminium at the start of June.

Chip stocks, which derive a large part of their revenue from China, were also trading higher. The PHLX semiconductor index advanced 0.5 per cent after dropping more than 2 per cent over the past three sessions.

Shares in General Electric Co, the last remaining original member of the 30-stock Dow, fell 0.5 per cent on news the company will be removed from the index prior to the start of trading on June 26. Walgreens Boots Alliance Inc , which will replace GE, jumped 5.2 per cent.

Starbucks Corp tumbled 9.1 per cent after the world's largest coffee chain's quarterly sales growth forecast missed analysts' estimates. Oracle Corp slumped 7.5 per cent after the software maker's current-quarter profit forecast fell short of analysts' expectations.

Advancing issues outnumbered declining ones on the NYSE by a 1.53-to-1 ratio; on Nasdaq, a 1.80-to-1 ratio favuored advancers. The S&P 500 posted 29 new 52-week highs and six new lows; the Nasdaq Composite recorded 212 new highs and 30 new lows. About 6.63 billion shares changed hands in U.S. exchanges, compared with the 6.98 billion daily average over the last 20 sessions.

Related Topics