Stock market today: Losses for Big Tech companies lead Wall Street lower

Stocks on Wall Street closed lower Wednesday as a pullback in big technology companies outweighed gains elsewhere in the market.

The S&P 500 fell 0.6%, weighed down by drops in Nvidia, Apple, Microsoft and Amazon. About 56% of the stocks in the benchmark index finished in the red. Tech sector stocks include many companies with outsized values that tend to lean more heavily on the index.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average, which was coming off two consecutive all-time highs, fell 0.4%. The Nasdaq composite, which is heavily weighted with technology stocks, closed 1.1% lower.

The selling came ahead of an eagerly anticipated earnings report from the semiconductor company Nvidia, whose chips power AI applications. The company is one of the most influential stocks on Wall Street, with a total market value topping $3 trillion.

Nvidia reported its second-quarter results late Wednesday. Its earnings and revenue topped Wall Street's forecasts, but the stock fell 3.7% in after-hours trading. The shares fell 2.1% during the regular session. They're still up 153% for the year.

The chipmaker is one of several companies that have ridden a wave of enthusiasm over artificial intelligence developments and have been responsible for much of the broader market’s big gains over the last year.

The market’s pullback ahead of Nvidia’s quarterly results may have been partly due to news about another company tied to AI, Super Micro Computer.

The server technology company's stock sank 19.1% for the biggest decline among S&P 500 stocks after the company said it was delaying the filing of its annual report.

“The Super Micro story I think has people on edge because they’re so directly linked to the AI theme,” said Ross Mayfield, investment strategist at Baird.

Investors also reviewed a mixed batch of earnings and corporate financial updates from other companies Wednesday. Nordstrom rose 4.2% after beating analysts' earnings expectations and raising its financial forecasts for the year. Rival Kohl's rose 0.3% after also beating analysts' earnings expectations.

PVH, which owns the Calvin Klein and Tommy Hilfiger brands, fell 6.4% after giving investors a revenue forecast short of analysts’ expectations. Food producer J.M. Smucker fell 4.9% after trimming its earnings forecast for the year.

All told, the S&P 500 fell 33.62 points to 5,592.18. The Dow fell 159.08 points to 41,091.42. The Nasdaq fell 198.79 points to 17,556.03.

The latest results from retailers and others come as Wall Street and the Federal Reserve try to gauge the resiliency of U.S. consumers amid the squeeze from inflation and high borrowing rates. The latest updates from clothing retailers, food producers and others can help shed more light on how and where people are spending money.

Investors are also looking ahead to Friday, when the U.S. government releases its latest data on inflation with the PCE, or personal consumption and expenditures report, for July. The hope is that the data shows inflation easing further — or at least stagnating — so that Fed officials remain comfortable cutting interest rates at their September meeting as they've strongly suggested they would.

Economists expect the PCE, which is the Fed's preferred measure of inflation, to show that inflation edged up to 2.6% in July from 2.5% in June. It was as high as 7.1% in the middle of 2022. The rate of inflation has been easing steadily back toward the central bank's target of 2% since then, following the Fed's aggressive interest rate hikes.

Traders expect the central bank to begin trimming its benchmark interest rate back from a two-decade high at its next meeting in September, with cuts totaling up to 1% by the end of the year.

The expectations for those interest rate cuts follow reports on retail sales, employment and consumer confidence that show the economy continues to remain strong. That has helped build confidence that the Fed will accomplish its goal of taming inflation without stalling the economy into a recession.

“Economic fundamentals continue to point to sustainable disinflation," said Gregory Daco, chief economist at EY.

Treasury yields were mixed in the bond market. The yield on the 10-year Treasury rose to 3.84% from 3.83% on Tuesday.

Investor Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway unloaded more of its Bank of America stake, selling nearly 25 million shares worth almost $1 billion over the past week. Berkshire Hathaway's Class A stock, already the most expensive stock on Wall Street, gained enough ground to elevate the conglomerate into the club of companies valued by the stock market at over $1 trillion. It's the only company outside of the technology-related “Magnificent Seven” with that distinction.

Berkshire's Class A shares rose $5,152.03, or 0.7%, to close at $696,502.02.

Elsewhere, markets were mostly lower in Europe and mixed in Asia.

Yuri Kageyama and Matt Ott and Josh Funk contributed.

Flags fly on the side of the New York Stock Exchange with Trinity Church in the background on Wednesday, Aug. 28, 2024, in New York. (AP Photo/Peter Morgan)

Currency traders watch monitors near a screen showing the Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI), top left, at the foreign exchange dealing room of the KEB Hana Bank headquarters in Seoul, South Korea, Wednesday, Aug. 28, 2024. (AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon)

Currency traders work near a screen showing the Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI), top left, at the foreign exchange dealing room of the KEB Hana Bank headquarters in Seoul, South Korea, Wednesday, Aug. 28, 2024. (AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon)

A currency trader stretches while working near a screen showing the Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI) at the foreign exchange dealing room of the KEB Hana Bank headquarters in Seoul, South Korea, Wednesday, Aug. 28, 2024. (AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon)

ANKARA, Turkey (AP) — Turkey is rolling out sweeping security measures for the upcoming NATO summit, deploying tens of thousands of police and placing air defenses on high alert, while banning public gatherings and imposing controversial restrictions on freedom of expression and assembly.

That's meant to safeguard the summit, but also to display strength and underscore Turkey’s commitment to the military alliance, even as it is often portrayed as an outlier within it.

On July 7–8, leaders from all 32 member states are expected convene in the Turkish capital, including U.S. President Donald Trump, whose threats to withdraw from NATO and reduce U.S. troop levels have cast uncertainty over the alliance’s future.

Turkey has also unveiled a new VIP airport, converted from a former military airfield, specifically to host NATO leaders.

At the Ankara summit, NATO members are expected to address questions over defense spending and the U.S.’s evolving role in the alliance.

The main agenda will center on unity after Trump has criticized allies for failing to support the U.S.-led war on Iran and efforts to reopen the Strait of Hormuz.

“The important aspect of the meeting is to what extent the rift between the United States and Europe can be healed or narrowed during the summit,” said Fatih Ceylan, a former Turkish ambassador to NATO and security analyst at the Ankara Policy Center. “We should not expect miracles, but nonetheless if there is a convergence of ideas emphasizing the importance of NATO, that should be seen as a success.”

Turkey's role as host seems to have helped win an appearance by Trump, who has a close rapport with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

“Well, except for the fact that it was being held in Turkey by President Erdogan, I don’t think I would have gone to it,” he told reporters following a meeting with NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte at the White House.

In the run-up to the summit, Erdogan described Turkey as a reliable ally that consistently shoulders responsibility on NATO’s southeastern flank and will continue to play a leading role in the alliance. He said his country was working to ensure that the Ankara Summit “will stand as a reference point in NATO’s history.”

A NATO member since 1952, Turkey has the alliance’s second-largest army after the United States, a fast-growing defense industry and a strategic location at the crossroads of Europe, the Middle East, the Black Sea and the Caucasus.

Yet it has often acted independently, frustrating allies by refusing to participate in sanctions on Russia, engaging in disputes with Greece, and purchasing Russian missile defense systems — a move that led to its expulsion from the U.S.-led F-35 program in 2019.

Turkey also delayed Finland and Sweden’s NATO membership until it secured concessions on counter-terrorism cooperation and the lifting of arms export restrictions, and blocked the appointments of NATO chiefs Anders Fogh Rassmussen in 2009 and Mark Rutte in 2024 until other demands were met.

But Turkey's independent streak has also enabled it to play a mediating role, from brokering a deal to ship grain across the Black Sea between Ukraine and Russia in 2022 to supporting recent initiatives aimed at ending the war in Iran.

Ankara, too, has at times been frustrated with its NATO allies, particularly over what it saw as the alliance’s lack of solidarity during a failed coup attempt in 2016, and the arms sales restrictions imposed on Turkey after its intervention in Syria.

Murat Aslan, an analyst at the Ankara-based SETA think tank, said Turkey learned to “play it alone” due to its turbulent relations with the United States and Europe, adding that Europe is now also talking about “strategic autonomy” from the U.S.

Turkey can help NATO navigate U.S.–Europe tensions by showing how to “balance” independence with alliance commitments, he said.

More recently, however, Turkey has leaned closer to NATO, whose importance was underscored during the Iran war when alliance missile defenses intercepted four missiles fired from Iran into Turkish territory. Weeks before the summit, Italy and Germany deployed air defense systems to help Turkey respond to heightened threats.

“Turkey wishes to distinguish itself as a foreign policy actor that is independent of NATO and the West,” wrote Hamish Kinnear, principal Middle East and North Africa analyst at risk intelligence company Verisk Maplecroft, in a note. “While Turkey is not abandoning its balancing approach, it is tilting closer to the West, primarily because of NATO.”

In Ankara, strict access restrictions will be imposed on several of the city's main arteries, around airports, the presidential complex where the summit will be held, and around hotels hosting the delegations, severely disrupting life in the city of nearly 6 million.

As the country prepares for the summit, Erdogan unveiled a new airport which was transformed from a former military airfield into a modern facility with expanded runways. The new Ankara Airport is expected to remain a VIP airport after the summit and is not expected to serve the general public, officials have said.

Facades of houses along the route from the new airport have been painted over as part of city beautification efforts, the newspaper Cumhuriyet reported.

With a history of terrorist attacks, Turkey's capital is no stranger to tight security, but the measures being taken in connection with NATO appear to go beyond the usual.

Authorities have also banned demonstrations, concerts, and graduation ceremonies during the summit, while nonessential state employees have been placed on leave to ease congestion.

Security units have detained more than 200 people suspected of links to extremist groups, including the Islamic State group, authorities said. Media reports said that several activists, lawyers and an academic were caught up in the sweep.

A Turkish court, meanwhile, blocked access to websites critical of NATO and the summit on security and public order grounds, according to Engelli Web, a website that tracks websites banned in Turkey. Several journalists from Turkish opposition-leaning media organizations were denied accreditation to cover the summit, sparking outrage from media rights groups.

“In the history of the organization, we have never witnessed security measures as stringent and suffocating in a host city for a summit as we are seeing this time in Ankara,” wrote Namik Tan, a former Turkish ambassador and legislator from Turkey's main opposition party.

Personal trainer Selin Karakoc said she breathed a sigh of relief after she was told that her wedding on July 5 falls just before the start of the restrictions.

“Ours could be one of the last weddings in Ankara that week,” she joked.

In this handout photo released by Turkish Presidency, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, left, greets Turkey's army top commanders during the official opening ceremony of a converted military airport, in Ankara, Monday, June 15, 2025. (Turkish Presidency via AP)

FILE - Flags flap in the wind outside NATO headquarters in Brussels, Jan. 19, 2026. (AP Photo/Virginia Mayo, File)

Demonstrators chant slogans and raise placards, including a sign depicting U.S. President Donald Trump, during an anti-NATO protest in Istanbul, Turkey, Saturday, June 27, 2026, days ahead of the NATO summit scheduled to be held in Ankara on July 7-8.(AP Photo/Khalil Hamra)

Demonstrators chant slogans and raise placards, during an anti-NATO protest in Istanbul, Turkey, Saturday, June 27, 2026, days ahead of the NATO summit scheduled to be held in Ankara on July 7-8.(AP Photo/Khalil Hamra)