After a turbulent session that interrupted multi-day rises for major averages, Wall Street paused on Wednesday evening, causing US stock futures to decline.
Futures contracts linked to the S&P 500 (ES=F) and Dow Jones Industrial Average (YM=F) fell 0.1%. Nasdaq 100 futures (NQ=F) experienced a 0.2% decline.
Despite reaching fresh intraday highs earlier in the session, both the Dow (^DJI) and the S&P 500 (^GSPC) finished lower during normal trade.
For the first time since 2019, Alphabet (GOOG), the parent company of Google, briefly overtook Apple (AAPL) in market value as the Nasdaq Composite (^IXIC) finished slightly higher.
Markets have generally held up well in a week of ongoing global flashpoints, but investors are becoming more aware that rising tensions may put that optimism to the test as the year progresses.
Oil prices fell throughout day trading as a result of President Trump's announcement that Venezuela will give up and provide up to 50 million barrels of its crude to the US and the US energy secretary's declaration that the US would control the nation's oil supply "indefinitely going forward."
Investors are still very much aware of headline risk. Traders are anticipating a Supreme Court ruling this week about the validity of Trump-imposed tariffs. Friday is set aside as opinion day, providing the first opportunity for a legal challenge to the levies.
Along with the Supreme Court's ruling, Friday is expected to be a pivotal day for understanding the state of the economy as investors receive the December jobs report, which will be scrutinized more closely as one of the bigger data releases in a shortened slate of governmental production.
For tech stocks, CES 2026 continues to offer crucial information. After the release of the new Core Ultra 3 series chips, the shares of Intel (INTC) increased by 6.5%.
With a number of US senators addressing on Thursday on the funding and regulatory framework AI will operate under in the upcoming year, AI has dominated the material coming out of the convention.
Alphabet (GOOG) closed on Wednesday after surpassing Apple (AAPL) in market value. This is the first time since 2019 that Google's parent company has surpassed the iPhone manufacturer.
Both businesses are more than $700 billion behind Nvidia (NVDA). Alphabet's stock increased more than 2% to settle at $322.03 on Wednesday, closing with a market valuation of almost $3.88 trillion.
On the other hand, due to a recent sell-off that has caused the stock to drop by 4.7% over the last five days, Apple concluded the session valued at roughly $3.84 trillion.
The change demonstrates how the two IT behemoths are positioned differently in the quickly changing field of artificial intelligence.
Driven by a string of AI-focused victories that changed market sentiment, Alphabet finished 2025 as one of Wall Street's best performers.
In 2025, Alphabet's stock increased by 65%, its largest yearly gain since 2009. In contrast, Apple has had difficulty persuading investors that it can be a leader in AI. Siri's long-awaited update was postponed, and a redesigned version is now scheduled for 2026.
