A choppy day of trading on Wall Street ended with a mixed finish for stock indexes Wednesday, as gains by several big technology stocks helped temper losses.
The S&P 500 edged up 0.1% after wavering between small gains and losses much of the day. Most of the stocks in the index lost ground, but solid gains for several heavyweight technology companies like Nvidia helped counter a decline in health care and other sectors.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average slipped 0.2%, while the Nasdaq composite rose 0.7%.
Super Micro Computer surged 15.7% after signing a partnership agreement with Saudi Arabian data center company DataVolt. Advanced Micro Devices gained 4.7% after announcing a $6 billion stock buyback program.
Nvidia rose 4.2% and Google parent Alphabet added 3.7%.
Other big gainers included eToro Group, a retail trading platform for stocks and cryptocurrency. It rose 28.8% in its first day of trading.
The market has been relatively steady since its surge on Monday, which came after the U.S. and China entered a 90-day pause in their trade war. The market gained some more ground on Tuesday after the government reported that inflation unexpectedly cooled across the country in April. Additional updates on inflation and retail sales are expected on Thursday.
The benchmark S&P 500 index, which sits at the center many 401(k) accounts, has erased all its losses since President Donald Trump escalated his global trade war in early April. It has now also erased its losses for the year and is back to within 4.1% of its all-time high set in February.