The S&P 500 reached a new record high on Wednesday, closing at 6,144.15. This marks the second record close in a row for the index. It also touched a new all-time high during the trading session.
The Nasdaq Composite rose 0.07% to end at 20,056.25. The Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 71.25 points, or 0.16%, to finish at 44,627.59. Apple’s stock jumped nearly 10% after the company reported quarterly results that beat expectations on both revenue and earnings.
Investors also reviewed minutes from the latest Federal Reserve meeting. The minutes showed that Fed officials want to see more progress on inflation before cutting interest rates again. They also expressed concerns about the impact of President Trump’s tariffs.
“I think there’s a lot of noise tied to tariffs in the short-term, which is what you’re seeing today. And I think a lot of this stuff will linger,” said Jim Elios, founder and chief investment officer at Elios Financial Group. “It’s the Trump effect with headlines that are weighing on markets and causing some pain.
In the long term, I’m still really bullish about how this can become a pro-business environment,” he added. Palantir shares tumbled as much as 12.9% on Wednesday, the stock’s biggest drop since May 2024. The decline came after reports that the Trump administration and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth are directing top Pentagon officials to plan for 8% cuts to the defense budget each year for the next five years.
In a separate development, Palantir filed a notice with the SEC on Tuesday stating that CEO Alex Karp adopted a trading plan in mid-December that allows him to sell up to 9.975 million shares through mid-September 2025. Palantir’s stock is still up 48% in 2025 after skyrocketing 340% in 2024 and 167% in 2023. Walmart shares are trading near record highs ahead of the company’s earnings report on Thursday morning.
S&P 500 hits new heights
Morgan Stanley raised its bull case price target on the stock to $153 per share. That’s 15% higher than its previous target and about 47% above Walmart’s closing price on Tuesday.
The firm’s base case price target is $115. Analyst Simeon Gutman expects Walmart’s alternative businesses, including Walmart+ memberships, third-party e-commerce, automation efforts, and advertising from its retail media unit, to drive revenue growth of about 5% and earnings growth of 12% over the next three years. Analysts are positive on Nike’s new partnership with Kim Kardashian’s Skims brand.
Nike announced it will launch an activewear line with the intimate apparel maker called NikeSKIMS, with an initial collection debuting this spring. “Athletic brands have a mixed track record with celebrity partnerships, but NikeSKIMS seems like a big win for Nike,” said Cristina Fernández, senior research analyst at Telsey Advisory Group. Piper Sandler senior research analyst Anna Andreeva called the partnership an “outside-the-box” move that will help Nike’s women’s business and attract younger customers.
Microsoft unveiled its first quantum computing chip, Majorana 1, on Wednesday after nearly 20 years of research in the field. The company said the chip reveal demonstrated that “quantum computers capable of solving meaningful, industrial-scale problems” are “years, not decades” away. Quantum computers are expected to disrupt current computing systems because they can solve problems that are considered nearly impossible for today’s computers.
The computers could be used to build data and train AI models, according to Jason Zander, a Microsoft executive vice president. Quantum computing stocks rallied on the news of the chip’s release. IonQ shares surged 42%, while Rigetti Computing and D-Wave both gained 5%.
Apple announced the iPhone 16e on Wednesday. The device will cost $599 and go on sale later this month. Notably, the iPhone 16e will have enough power to run AI technology.
Apple’s stock was little changed in Wednesday’s session.
Photo by; Joel Filipe on Unsplash
