US Markets
Small caps lead a quiet green day on Wall Street
The major U.S. indexes end higher as volatility drops and sector gains spread beyond tech.
U.S. stocks finish modestly higher, with the S&P 500 up 0.5% to 7,666.6, the Nasdaq up 0.5% to 26,217.8, the Dow up 0.6% to 53,061.9, and the Russell 2000 up 1.1% to 2,953.2. The session is steady rather than dramatic, but the small-cap bid stands out.
The volatility backdrop gets quieter. The VIX falls 7.0% to 15.2, while the VIX 9-day drops 25.4% to 12.57. That lines up with a market that keeps grinding higher even though the S&P 500 is still only 0.46% above where it closed the prior day.
Sector performance is broader than a pure mega-cap tech day. Materials gain 1.7%, communication services rise 1.4%, financials add 0.8%, and health care climbs 0.8%. Real estate is the weakest sector, down 0.7%, while tech is basically flat at -0.0%.
Individual names reflect the same split. NVDA rises 3.2% and ORCL gains 3.1% in the watchlist, while PLTR falls 5.8% and PANW drops 9.3% in the broader marketwide losers list. CNBC’s Broadcom and Microsoft headlines keep AI and cloud in focus, while Dell’s 15.8% jump lands squarely in the AI hardware trade.