US stocks ended mixed on Wednesday, with the S&P 500 closing flat as traders assessed whether the rally has more room to run. The index edged down less than 0.01% to end at 6,092.16, hovering just below its record high of 6,144.15. The Dow Jones dipped 106 points, or 0.25%, to close at 42,982.43, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite rose 0.31% to 19,973.55 and Nasdaq 100 managed to notch a new all-time closing high.
Nvidia becomes world’s most valuable company
Artificial intelligence stocks led the charge, with Nvidia surging 4.3% to a record close of US$154.31. That pushed its market cap to US$3.77 trillion—overtaking Microsoft and Apple to become the most valuable publicly traded company in the world. Investors appear undeterred by Nvidia’s loss of access to China, instead focusing on its dominance in GPU chips used to power AI workloads. Alphabet added 2.3%, while AMD gained 3.6%. Microsoft rose 0.4%, putting its valuation at US$3.66 trillion, while Apple ended at US$3.01 trillion.
Stablecoins gain traction as Mastercard joins major consortium
Meanwhile, crypto payments infrastructure took a step forward as Mastercard joined the Global Dollar Network, a stablecoin group led by Paxos. The consortium also includes PayPal, Robinhood, Galaxy, and Kraken. Mastercard will now support PYUSD, FIUSD, and continue backing Circle’s USDC.
Australian market set to open lower
Australian shares are set to open lower, following weakness on Wall Street where the recent rally has stalled near record highs. The SPI futures point to a 40-point drop at the open.
Investors will be watching today’s economic data releases, including the Australian Bureau of Statistics’ May job vacancies report at 11:30am AEST.
In the US, markets will digest key indicators including May durable goods orders, the third estimate of Q1 GDP, and weekly initial jobless claims—providing a clearer picture of the American economy’s near-term trajectory.
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