US stock market: Dow Jones falls, S&P 500, Nasdaq gain. Check top performing stocks

US Stock Market: Wall Street stocks finished mostly higher on Wednesday. The tech-rich Nasdaq Composite Index finished up 1.0 percent at 21,497.73. The Dow Jones Industrial Average slipped 0.1 percent to 45,271.23, while the broad-based S&P 500 climbed 0.5 percent to 6,448.26. But stocks were in better shape today.

Google parent Alphabet and Apple made big gains as markets look ahead to key US jobs data later in the week. Shares of Alphabet jumped around nine percent after a US judge imposed a number of conditions to restore competition following an August 2024 ruling that Google illegally maintained monopolies in online search, a decision that also boosted Apple shares.

A Federal Reserve report released Wednesday pointed to a reluctance of companies to hire in several regions of the United States because of uncertainty over the economic outlook.

Markets are set to digest on Friday US labor market data for August.

Futures markets overwhelmingly expect the US central bank to lower rates by a quarter of a percentage point following a poor July jobs report. However, that outlook could shift if the data significantly exceeds expectations.

Among individual companies, Apple rose 3.8 percent.

Tuesday's judicial decision in the Google case preserves the company's distribution agreements, resulting in billions in Google payments to Apple to make Google the default search engine on iPhones and other devices.

Macy's rocketed up 20.7 percent after its latest earnings report suggested improvement at the struggling department-store chain.

FAQs

Q1. What are top three indexes?
A1. Top three indexes are Dow Jones, S&P 500, Nasdaq.

Q2. How is Apple stock performing?
A2. Apple stock rose 3.8 percent.