Dow jumps more than 250 points for record close and fifth winning day: Live updates

The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose to a fresh all-time high on Wednesday, powered by strong earnings and an advance in Nvidia shares.

The 30-stock index rose 263.24 points, or 0.49%, for a record close of 54,349.12 and its fifth straight positive day. The S&P 500 retreated from its new record high set earlier in the day, pulling back 0.17% to 7,723.55 as tech stocks slipped. The Nasdaq Composite dropped 0.83% to end at 26,363.44.

Wednesday's move ended a four-day winning streak for the S&P 500.

Dow member Nvidia shares popped more than 3% after Elon Musk said that SpaceX would only use Nvidia processors when building its artificial intelligence computing infrastructure in the future. In SpaceX's earnings call, he said Nvidia has "the best AI computer," before adding, "We're exclusive to Nvidia."

SpaceX shares dropped more than 13%, however, after the rocket company released its first quarterly report since going public in June. The company said its capital expenditures jumped sixfold to $18.4 billion in the second quarter. This figure was ahead of analyst expectations, with the majority of the spending going toward AI.

Chip giant Advanced Micro Devices and "Magnificent Seven" member Alphabet struggled. The former fell 7% after the company posted adjusted earnings that only came in slightly ahead of the Street's estimates. The latter slipped 4% after the company said it's reshuffling its AI divisions and that chief scientist Jeff Dean is leaving the company after 27 years.

Wall Street is coming off a winning session, with the S&P 500 closing above 7,700 for the first time and the Dow notching a record high as well.

"It seems like animal spirits are really back with a gusto," said Baird investment strategist Ross Mayfield, adding that the size of the moves seen throughout the last few days is "pretty rare historically." On Tuesday, the three major averages notched their best four-day performance since April 2025.

Increased hope of a deal to reopen the Strait of Hormuz in the Middle East has also bolstered equities this week.

Oil prices were stable Wednesday after falling Tuesday, when Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said that the U.S. and Iran could be closing in on a deal to reopen the Strait of Hormuz. West Texas Intermediate futures for September delivery settled down 0.73% at $75.22 per barrel. Brent crude futures for October delivery, the international benchmark, advanced 0.11% to settle at $79.45 a barrel.

Federal Reserve Governor Lisa Cook said on Wednesday that she is ready to back an interest rate hike, warning of sticky inflation.

"Inflation is too high, and I consider the risks to the inflation side of the duan mandate higher than the risks to the employment side at this point," she said in a speech in Anchorage, Alaska. "As such, I am prepared to act by raising rates, if necessary."

The Dow Jones Industrial Average finished at record levels on Wednesday.

The blue-chip index climbed 263.24 points, or 0.49%, to finish at 54,349.12. On the other hand, the S&P 500 and Nasdaq both closed in negative territory, dropping 0.17% and 0.83% to 7,723.55 and 26,363.44, respectively.

Shares of Shake Shack jumped nearly 9% after activist investor Starboard Value CEO Jeff Smith told Bloomberg the firm has built a stake in the company.

Smith also said that Starboard has a position of hundreds of millions of dollars and likely is the largest active shareholder in the stock.

In a statement, a Shake Shack representative said it appreciates the investment and confidence in the company.

Copper climbed 1.3% to settle at $6.7275 per pound to hit its highest levels on record — going back to 1988. The industrial metal is up nearly 19% this year and 11% since the Iran war began.

Disney's mixed quarterly results were largely well received by Wall Street analysts, as well as investors. Shares moved more than 3% higher in afternoon trading.

"There's lots to like," said Morgan Stanley analyst Sean Diffley.

While Disney's fourth-quarter operating income guidance fell short of Morgan Stanley's estimate, the company reiterated its full year guidance, he pointed out.

That "underscores the durability and diversification across the business," Diffley wrote in a note Wednesday. "Most importantly, the sale of its A+E stake to Hearst underscores that new CEO Josh D'Amaro is willing to take a fresh look at the portfolio and simplify & optimize with a clear move away from linear."

He has an overweight rating and $123 price target on the stock, which implies 25% upside from Tuesday's close.

Wells Fargo and Bank of America both also reiterated their overweight and buy ratings, respectively.

"While F3Q revs missed, DIS's OI & EPS were strong. Parks trends are solid/accel'ing & SVOD [subscription video on demand] is on-track. With guidance reit'd, & conservative, we expect FY'27 ests to inch higher w/ improved confidence," Wells Fargo analyst Steven Cahall said in a note Wednesday.

Here are the companies making headlines in midday trading:

Shares of Alphabet sank midday Wednesday after Google said that it's shuffling its artificial intelligence divisions.

As part of these changes, Google chief scientist Jeff Dean will be leaving the company after a 27-year career there. He'll be starting his own company, and Google will invest in his startup, a representative told CNBC.

Alphabet shares were last down more than 4%.

The iShares US Aerospace & Defense ETF (ITA) ticked up to an intraday record on Wednesday.

The fund hit an all-time high dating back to its inception in 2006. ITA last hit a record in July 7. Shares were last up 0.3%.

This latest run to record highs is led by Kratos Defense & Security Solutions, which last traded up nearly 7% on top and bottom line beats in the second quarter. The company also boosted its full-year guidance, calling for revenue in a range of $1.75 billion to $1.81 billion, up from its prior call for $1.7 billion to $1.76 billon. The forecast beat the FactSet consensus call for $1.74 billion.

The U.S. services sector continued to expand in July though prices rose and hiring pulled back, the Institute for Supply Management reported Wednesday.

The ISM Services PMI was at 54.1 for the month, just above the June reading of 54.0 and slightly below the Dow Jones consensus for 54.5. As the index measures the percentage of firms reporting growth, anything above 50 indicates expansion, which the sector has been in for 25 consecutive months.

Though the top-line reading was solid, the employment index retreated to 47.4, its lowest since March. The prices index rose to 70.3, putting its 12-month average at the highest since April 2023.

Iran and Oman are negotiating a deal that would give Tehran control over inbound ship traffic through the Strait of Hormuz, an Iranian source and two regional officials told Reuters.

"The concession has already been made regarding some ​form of control over Hormuz," one of the regional sources told Reuters.

The sources pushed back on the claim by Trump administration officials that a deal to open Hormuz was imminent. They told Reuters that important details still had to be worked out.

Brent oil was about 1% higher at around $80 per barrel Wednesday after Iran's Houthi allies claimed to have attacked a Saudi tanker in the Red Sea. Futures sold off in the previous session on chatter that the U.S. and Iran were nearing a deal.

The S&P 500 and Dow Jones Industrial Average scored new record highs on Wednesday morning.

The broad market index rose 0.6% just after 9:30 a.m. ET, while blue-chip Dow advanced 365 points, or 0.7%. The Nasdaq Composite also rose 0.4%.

Crude prices rose Wednesday after Yemen's Iran-backed Houthi militants claimed they had struck a Saudi Arabian tanker in the Red Sea.

Higher interest rates are necessary now to bring down inflation, according to Minneapolis Fed President Neel Kashkari.

"Corporate earnings are through the roof. They're doing great. The consumer is hanging in there. The labor market is hanging in there. I look at this constellation and I say, what evidence do I have that monetary policy is particularly restrictive right now?" he told CNBC's Andrew Ross Sorkin in a live interview from the Aspen Ideas Festival in Colorado.

"So I argued now is the time to start slowly moving up as we get more data in," he said.

Hiring at private companies slowed considerably in July, with most of the job growth coming health care, payrolls processing firm ADP reported Wednesday.

Check out the companies making the biggest moves premarket:

CVS beat FactSet consensus on earnings and revenue for the second quarter Wednesday morning

The company reported earnings of $2.58 versus FactSet's $1.85. Similarly, CVS's revenue was $106.1 billion compared to FactSet's expected $100.03 billion.Â

The health company also increased its EPS guidance to $7.90 to $8.10 from $7.30 to $7.50. It's also increasing its GAAP diluted EPS and cash flow from its operation guidance.

Shares of the company were up around 3% in premarket trading following the report.

Uber Technologies shares slid 3% after the ride-hailing company issued a forecast for bookings and earnings that trailed analysts' estimates, while second-quarter profit was in line with expectations.

Uber sees bookings of $59.25 billion at the middle of its range in the third quarter. That trails the average StreetAccount estimate of $59.33 billion. And the company's earnings forecast of 84 cents to 88 cents fell below the 89-cent average analyst estimate, according to LSEG.

Uber posted revenue of $14.19 billion, which disappointed the consensus estimate of $14.24 billion, according to LSEG. Earnings of 81 cents per share came in line with expectations.

Eli Lilly shares popped 5% after the pharma giant reported Q2 results that easily beat analyst expectations, thanks to strong sales from Zepbound and Mounjaro.

Lilly earned an adjusted $8.38 per share on revenue of $22.97 billion. Analysts expected a profit of $6.01 per share on revenue of $20.73 billion.

Circle shares jumped 9% in premarket trading after the company named several initial partners on its new Arc blockchain for financial services and doubled the midpoint of its full year other revenue guidance to $320 million from $160 million, driven by recognized revenue from the ARC token presale in May.

BlackRock, New York Stock Exchange parent Intercontinental Exchange, Visa, Mastercard, the DTCC, Galaxy, Global Payments and Moneygram are among the initial group of partners that will help run Arc.

See the full list of Arc partners and watch CNBC's exclusive interview with Circle CEO Jeremy Allaire on the announcement here.

Elsewhere, revenue grew 7% year over year to $701 million, missing FactSet expectations of $713 million, as lower interest rates and a softer crypto market weighed on growth. The quarter reflects Circle's push to diversify beyond stablecoin issuance by building infrastructure across tokenized assets, payments and AI-enabled financial applications.

Disney shares were up more than 4% in the premarket after the media giant reported earnings that beat analyst expectations. The company earned an adjusted $2.06 per share in the fiscal third quarter, beating an LSEG estimate of $1.86.

Here are they key stocks moving in premarket trading on Wednesday as the earnings bonanza continues:

SpaceXÂ shares plunged on Wednesday after a surge in AI spending rattled investors and clouded an otherwise expectation-beating quarter.

The stock was down over 10% in premarket trading.

In SpaceX's first earnings report as a public company on Tuesday, Elon Musk's space firm said its capital expenditures jumped sixfold to $18.4 billion in the second quarter. This figure was ahead of analyst expectations, with the majority of the spending going towards AI.

Investors have been on edge this earnings season as concerns rise about whether large tech companies can prove their multibillion-dollar investments are yielding returns.

Asia-Pacific markets rose Wednesday, with South Korean stocks leading gains.

Kospi rose 3.8% to end the day at 6,598.26 and the small-cap Kosdaq rose 2.42% to 799.59.

Japan's Nikkei 225 gained 3.7% to 66,300.44, while the Topix added 2.1% to 4,046.17. Australia's benchmark S&P/ASX 200 advanced 0.9% to close at 9,227.8.

Mainland China's CSI 300 climbed 1.24% to 4,658.16. Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index was up 0.13% in the last hour of trade.

Siemens Energy was trading 3.4% up on Wednesday after the company posted record levels of orders, revenue and profitability for the third quarter. The company said order intake was driven primarily by U.S. demand.

Orders reached 17.9 billion euros and revenue rose 18.5% on a comparable basis (excluding currency translation and portfolio effects) to 11.4 billion euros. Profit before Special items more than tripled to 1.6 billion euros, compared with 497 million euros in Q3 FY 2025.

The stock has risen more than 50% in the past 12 months as the AI boom has led to huge demand for energy infrastructure.

Shares of Infineon fell around 5% at the market open as the German chipmaker's profit margins came in lower than analysts expected.Â

Infineon raised guidance for the rest of the year after posting record revenues in the third quarter, at €4.17 billion, compared to analysts' estimates of €4.13 billion.Â

But profit came in slightly lower than forecast, at €797 million against an expected €809 million.

Infineon CFO Sven Schneider told CNBC on Tuesday that there may be "quarterly ups and downs" on revenue and profitability, but that the firm is focused on the "midterm journey."

Europe's Stoxx 600 benchmark was up 0.47% shortly after 8:00 a.m. in London (3:00 a.m. E.T.), as most of the continent's sectors and main regional bourses opened Wednesday's session decisively in the green.

Mining stocks rose 2.6%, while retail names added 1.4%, and oil and gas companies were up 1.2%.

In Frankfurt, the German DAX advanced 0.62% in early dealmaking, as Italy's FTSE MIB gained 0.56% in Milan. In London, the U.K.'s FTSE 100 rose 0.39% and, in Paris, the French CAC 40 added 0.20% in morning trade.

The Stoxx 600 touched a record high on Tuesday, closing 0.7% higher at 656.86 points. That rally looks set to continue Wednesday, according to futures data.

Its underlying sectoral picture has been particularly mixed year-to-date, with some pockets of the Stoxx faring better than others. Technology stocks and banks have done well, while luxury stocks and automakers have struggled.

CNBC breaks down the leaders and laggards of 2026 so far.

Gold rose for a third consecutive session on Wednesday, as lower oil prices and a softer dollar boosted the yellow metal's appeal.Â

Spot gold rose 1.4% to around $4,152.36 an ounce, while gold futures rose 1.1% to $4,200.20.Â

Gold continues to move inversely to oil, which dropped over 5% on Tuesday after Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent told CNBC an agreement to open the Strait of Hormuz could be imminent.Â

Since the war began, gold has tended to move in line with other risk assets, which are coming off a bumper session that saw the S&P 500 top 7,700 for the first time.

Oil prices fell more than 1% Wednesday as investors assessed diplomatic efforts to end the conflict between the U.S. and Iran.

West Texas Intermediate futures for September delivery, the U.S. benchmark, declined about 1% to $74.97 per barrel. Brent crude futures for October delivery, the international benchmark, lost 0.8% to $78.77 a barrel.Â

The U.S. military said Tuesday that commercial vessels continue to transit the Strait of Hormuz safely, after Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent suggested a deal with Iran to reopen the strategic waterway could be reached within days.

In a post on X, U.S. Central Command said the "southern route of the Strait of Hormuz remains free and open," adding that U.S. forces had helped more than 1,000 commercial vessels navigate the passage despite what it described as "unwarranted" Iranian aggression.

The southern shipping lane runs through Oman's territorial waters, away from the section of the strait close to Iran.

Shares of Zhongji Innolight fell nearly 5% and Eoptolink Technology dropped 5.7% after Reuters reported that the Trump administration was drafting measures to ban imports of new models of Chinese optical transceivers as part of broader efforts to curb China's AI development.

Zhongji Innolight, which debuted on the Hong Kong stock market last week, said in its prospectus that it was the world's largest provider of optical interconnect solutions, part of the AI ecosystem, by revenue.

Peer Eoptolink manufactures optical modules used in broadband networks and data centers.

The Japanese yen strengthened 0.19% to 157.41 against the dollar on Wednesday.

Investors are now watching whether Japanese and U.S. authorities extend their currency operations beyond the initial burst of intervention, said Vincent Chung, co-portfolio manager for diversified income bond strategy at T. Rowe Price.

"The yen has already recovered a meaningful portion of its previous underperformance against other Asian currencies, including the Korean won. If intervention continues, the yen could strengthen further against the U.S. dollar," he wrote in a note on Wednesday.

A longer campaign could support additional yen gains although markets remain skeptical that intervention alone can engineer a lasting reversal, Chung added.

Asian technology stocks surged Wednesday after a strong Wall Street rally overnight that saw robust corporate earnings and easing oil prices push major U.S. indexes to fresh records.

Shares of SoftBank Group surged more than 10%, while chip equipment maker Tokyo Electron added 3.64%. Advantest jumped 7%, and Japanese memory chipmaker Kioxia rose 6.34%.

In South Korea, SK Hynix jumped 6.9%, while Samsung Electronics gained over 4%. Seoul Semiconductor popped 7.6%.

Tech stocks have been seeing heightened volatility, with South Korea's semiconductor-heavy market whipsawing between steep losses and record gains in recent sessions.

Australia's benchmark S&P/ASX 200 advanced 0.67%, hitting an intraday record high, data from LSEG showed.

Index heavyweight iron ore giant BHP Group advanced 2.3%, while mining peer Rio Tinto added 1.68%. Iron ore producer Fortescue also added 0.5%. Year-to-date, the index gained around 5%.

Shares of Samsung Electro-Mechanics jumped 12% and LG Innotek surged 15% in early trading Wednesday after a local media report said the companies had secured exclusive contracts to supply camera modules for Tesla's robotaxi, the Cybercab.

Samsung Electro-Mechanics began mass production of the camera modules last month, while LG Innotek is expected to begin production toward the end of this year, Hankyung reported, citing industry sources.Â

Korea stocks were broadly higher, with the Kospi index up nearly 5%.

Asia-Pacific markets traded higher on Tuesday, with South Korean equities leading gains in the region. The Kospi was up over 4%, while the small-cap Kosdaq advanced 1.6%.

Japan's Nikkei 225 rose 1.83%, and the Topix added 0.9%.

Australia's benchmark S&P/ASX 200 was 0.46% higher.

Asia's equity futures signal markets will open higher Wednesday, after Wall Street rose overnight amid optimism over a U.S.-Iran deal.

U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said Washington and Tehran could reach a deal as early as Tuesday or Wednesday to reopen the Strait of Hormuz, boosting hopes for easing geopolitical tensions and lower energy prices.

The U.S. military's Central Command said the southern route through the Strait of Hormuz remains "free and open" for commercial shipping despite what it described as "unwarranted Iranian aggression."

Nikkei 225 futures in Chicago were up 0.25%, while the Osaka contract was last up about 2.5% compared to the index's last close of 63,957.53.

Futures for Australia's S&P/ASX 200 were last up 0.45%, compared to the index's close of 9,145.8 while Hong Kong's Hang Seng futures edged 0.3% higher compared to the index's last close of 25,852.92.

SpaceX shares were down about 7% in after-hours trading on Tuesday, following the company's first-ever earnings report after going public in June.

The rocket launch and connectivity company reported second-quarter revenue of $7.81 billion, versus $6.93 billion expected, and capital expenditures of $18.37 billion, which far exceeded analysts' projections.

Several companies saw their shares move on earnings results.

Arista Networks — Shares gained about 10% after second quarter results surpassed estimates. Adjusted earnings came in at $1.02 per share on revenue of $3.04 billion, versus the LSEG consensus estimate of 88 cents a share and $2.82 billion.

AMD — The chipmaker plunged 8% after the bell on the back of second-quarter results that failed to impress investors. The company earned an adjusted $1.66 per share on revenue of $11.54 billion. To be sure, those numbers were slightly ahead of LSEG consensus estimates.

Click here for more after-hours movers.— Darla Mercado

Futures linked to the S&P 500 advanced 0.1% on Tuesday evening. Dow futures gained 94 points, or 0.2%, and Nasdaq-100 futures fell 0.1%.