NEW YORK: The S&P 500 was muted on Thursday as losses in heavyweight technology stocks offset broader gains, while defense companies advanced after President Donald Trump called for a USD1.5 trillion military budget.
Technology stocks on the S&P 500 lost 1.8 percent, with Nvidia, Apple, Microsoft, and Broadcom down between 1 percent and 3 percent. They also weighed on the Nasdaq.
Out of the 11 S&P 500 sectors, technology was the only other sector alongside healthcare trading lower.
The S&P 500 consumer staples sector led gains, up 2.2 percent, with Costco Wholesale rising 5.3 percent after Deutsche Bank resumed coverage of the stock with a “buy” rating. Home Depot and McDonald’s were the biggest boosts to the Dow.
Alphabet gained 1.6 percent after the Google-parent on Wednesday surpassed Apple in market capitalization for the first time since 2019, becoming the second-most valuable US company.
Joe Saluzzi, partner and co-founder at Themis Trading, said investors might be repositioning their holdings, so tech stocks are underperforming. However, it was “too soon” to call it a broadening of the market rally beyond tech stocks.
At 12:00 p.m. ET, the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 303.83 points, or 0.62 percent, to 49,299.91, the S&P 500 gained 3.51 points, or 0.05 percent, to 6,924.44 and the Nasdaq Composite lost 113.93 points, or 0.49 percent, to 23,469.09.
Defense stocks gained following Trump’s statement that the 2027 US military budget should be USD1.5 trillion, significantly higher than the USD901 billion approved by Congress for 2026.
RTX gained 1.2 percent, Lockheed Martin was up 4.7 percent, Northrop Grumman inched 3.4 percent higher and Kratos Defense advanced 17.3 percent. The S&P 500 aerospace and defense sub-index hit an all-time high, while the Arca Defense index was up 4 percent.
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