Wall Street steadies after Nvidia, Palantir and other AI stars trim their losses

NEW YORK (AP) — U.S. stock indexes ended mixed on Wednesday after Nvidia, Palantir and other superstar stocks pared most of their steep losses from the morning.

The S&P 500 dipped 0.2% after trimming a loss that reached 1.1% earlier in the day and remains near its an all-time high set last week. The Dow Jones Industrial Average added 16 points, or less than 0.1%, and the Nasdaq composite fell 0.7%.

The day’s action centered again around stocks caught up in the mania around artificial-intelligence technology.

Nvidia, whose chips are powering much of the world’s move into AI, sank as much as 3.9% during the morning and was on track to be the heaviest weight on Wall Street following its 3.5% fall on Tuesday.

But it clawed back nearly all of Wednesday’s drop and finished with a dip of just 0.1%. As it pared its loss, so did broad market indexes because Nvidia is Wall Street’s most influential stock by being its most valuable.

Palantir Technologies, another AI darling, fell 1.1% to add to its 9.4% loss from the day before, but it had been down as much as 9.8% Wednesday morning.

One possible contributor to the swoon was a study from MIT’s Nanda Initiative that warned that most corporations are not yet seeing any measurable return from their generative AI investments, according to Ulrike Hoffmann-Burchardi, global head of equities at UBS Global Wealth Management.

But the larger factor may be the simple criticism that prices for such stock simply shot too high, too fast amid the furor around AI and became too expensive. Nvidia, whose profit report scheduled for next week is one of Wall Street’s next major events, had soared 35.5% for the year so far heading into Tuesday. Palantir had surged even more, more than doubling.

The tech stocks still have supporters, though, who say AI will bring the next generational revolution in business.

Mixed profit reports from big U.S. retailers helped keep the rest of the market in check.

TJX, the company behind the TJ Maxx and Marshalls stores, climbed 2.7% after beating analysts’ forecasts for profit and revenue. It also raised its forecast for profit over its full fiscal year, while CEO Ernie Herrman said TJX is seeing “strong demand at each of our U.S. and international businesses” and that its current quarter is off to a strong start.

Lowe’s added 0.3% after the home-improvement retailer delivered a profit for the latest quarter that topped analysts’ expectations.

Target, meanwhile, tumbled 6.3%. The struggling retailer said that CEO Brian Cornell plans to step down Feb. 1 and that an insider, 20-year veteran Michael Fiddelke, will replace him. He helped reenergize the company, but it has struggled to turn around weak sales in a more competitive post-COVID retail landscape.

Estee Lauder dropped 3.7% after offering a forecast for profit this upcoming fiscal year that fell short of Wall Street’s estimates. The beauty company said it expects tariffs to shave roughly $100 million off its upcoming earnings.

La-Z-Boy sank 12.1% after the furniture maker’s profit and revenue for the spring came up shy of analysts’ expectations.

All told, the S&P 500 fell 15.59 points to 6,395.78. The Dow Jones Industrial Average added 16.04 to 44,938.31, and the Nasdaq composite fell 142.10 to 21,172.86.

The week’s biggest news for Wall Street is likely arriving on Friday, when Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell will give a highly anticipated speech in Jackson Hole, Wyoming. The hope on Wall Street is that Powell will hint that cuts to interest rates are coming soon.

The Fed has kept its main interest rate steady this year, primarily because of the fear of the possibility that President Donald Trump’s tariffs could push inflation higher. But a surprisingly weak report on job growth across the country may be superseding that.

Treasury yields have come down sharply on expectations for an easing of interest rates, and the yield on the 10-year Treasury fell to 4.29% from 4.30% late Tuesday.

Trump has been angrily calling for lower interest rates, often insulting Powell personally while doing so. Trump on Wednesday called on a top official at the Federal Reserve, Lisa Cook, to resign after a member of his administration accused her of committing mortgage fraud.

In stock markets abroad, indexes were mixed across Europe and Asia.

London’s FTSE 100 rose 1.1% despite a report that said inflation in the U.K. rose more than expected through July, in part due to soaring airfares and food prices.

Hong Kong’s Hang Seng added 0.2%. Shares that trade there of Chinese toy company Pop Mart International Group soared 12.5% after its CEO said its annual revenue could top $4 billion this year and announced the release of a mini version of its popular Labubu dolls.

AP Business Writers Yuri Kageyama and Matt Ott contributed.

A dealer talks near screens showing the Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI), left, and the foreign exchange rate between U.S. dollar and South Korean won at a dealing room of Hana Bank in Seoul, South Korea, Wednesday, Aug. 20, 2025. (AP Photo/Lee Jin-man)

Dealers talk near screens showing the Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI), left, and the foreign exchange rate between U.S. dollar and South Korean won at a dealing room of Hana Bank in Seoul, South Korea, Wednesday, Aug. 20, 2025. (AP Photo/Lee Jin-man)

Trader Richard Cohen works on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange, Monday, Aug. 18, 2025. (AP Photo/Richard Drew)

Trader Patrick Casey works on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange, Monday, Aug. 18, 2025. (AP Photo/Richard Drew)

Currency traders watch monitors near a screen showing the Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI), left, and the foreign exchange rate between U.S. dollar and South Korean won at the foreign exchange dealing room of the Hana Bank headquarters in Seoul, South Korea, Monday, Aug. 18, 2025. (AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon)

WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. forces in the Caribbean Sea have seized another sanctioned oil tanker that the Trump administration says has ties to Venezuela, part of a broader U.S. effort to take control of the South American country’s oil.

The U.S. Coast Guard boarded the tanker, named Veronica, early Thursday, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem wrote on social media. The ship had previously passed through Venezuelan waters and was operating in defiance of President Donald Trump’s "established quarantine of sanctioned vessels in the Caribbean,” she said.

U.S. Southern Command said Marines and sailors launched from the aircraft carrier USS Gerald R. Ford to take part in the operation alongside a Coast Guard tactical team, which Noem said conducted the boarding as in previous raids. The military said the ship was seized “without incident.”

Several U.S. government social media accounts posted brief videos that appeared to show various parts of the ship’s capture. Black-and-white footage showed at least four helicopters approaching the ship before hovering over the deck while armed troops dropped down by rope. At least nine people could be seen on the deck of the ship.

The Veronica is the sixth sanctioned tanker seized by U.S. forces as part of the effort by Trump’s administration to control the production, refining and global distribution of Venezuela’s oil products and the fourth since the U.S. ouster of Venezuela President Nicolás Maduro in a surprise nighttime raid almost two weeks ago.

The Veronica last transmitted its location on Jan. 3 as being at anchor off the coast of Aruba, just north of Venezuela’s main oil terminal. According to the data it transmitted at the time, the ship was partially filled with crude.

Days later, the Veronica became one of at least 16 tankers that left the Venezuelan coast in contravention of the quarantine that U.S. forces have set up to block sanctioned ships, according to Samir Madani, the co-founder of TankerTrackers.com. He said his organization used satellite imagery and surface-level photos to document the ship movements.

The ship is currently listed as flying the flag of Guyana and is considered part of the shadow fleet that moves cargoes of oil in violation of U.S. sanctions.

According to its registration data, the ship also has been known as the Gallileo, owned and managed by a company in Russia. In addition, a tanker with the same registration number previously sailed under the name Pegas and was sanctioned by the Treasury Department for being associated with a Russian company moving cargoes of illicit oil.

As with prior posts about such raids, Noem and the military framed the seizure as part of an effort to enforce the law. Noem argued that the multiple captures show that “there is no outrunning or escaping American justice.”

Speaking to reporters at the White House later Thursday, Noem declined to say how many sanctioned oil tankers the U.S. is tracking or whether the government is keeping tabs on freighters beyond the Caribbean Sea.

“I can’t speak to the specifics of the operation, although we are watching the entire shadow fleet and how they’re moving,” she told reporters.

But other officials in Trump's Republican administration have made clear they see the actions as a way to generate cash as they seek to rebuild Venezuela’s battered oil industry and restore its economy.

Trump met with executives from oil companies last week to discuss his goal of investing $100 billion in Venezuela to repair and upgrade its oil production and distribution. His administration has said it expects to sell at least 30 million to 50 million barrels of sanctioned Venezuelan oil.

Associated Press writer Ben Finley contributed to this report.

This story has been corrected to show the Veronica is the fourth, not the third, tanker seized by U.S. forces since Maduro’s capture and the ship also has been known as the Gallileo, not the Galileo.

Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem speaks with reporters at the White House, Thursday, Jan. 15, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)

Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem speaks with reporters at the White House, Thursday, Jan. 15, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)

Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem speaks with reporters at the White House, Thursday, Jan. 15, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)

Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem speaks with reporters at the White House, Thursday, Jan. 15, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)

Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem speaks with reporters at the White House, Thursday, Jan. 15, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)

U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem speaks during a press conference, Thursday, Jan. 8, 2026, in New York. (AP Photo/Yuki Iwamura)

U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem speaks at a news conference at Harry Reid International Airport, Nov. 22, 2025, in Las Vegas. (AP Photo/Ronda Churchill, File)