New York, July 1, 2026, 17:02 EDT
- Dow gave up 13.96 points to finish at 52,305.24 after reaching a new intraday high.
- The index gave up 437.42 points from the day’s high to the close, which was around 31 times bigger than the final point drop.
- S&P 500 and Nasdaq posted steeper losses, weighed down by tech shares.
- Payroll numbers are out Thursday. NYSE and Nasdaq won’t open Friday because of the Independence Day holiday.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average (INDEXDJX:.DJI) edged down 13.96 points on Wednesday. The drop came after an earlier gain that saw it hit 52,742.66, but the Dow lost steam, slipping 437.42 points from that intraday high. It settled at 52,305.24, missing out on what would have been its 20th record close of 2026. In the last 30 minutes, the index needed just a small gain to get to that milestone.
Investors paid more attention to the swings in the tape than to how the Dow closed. The index fell much further from its high than the final change showed—a 31:1 ratio. The Dow traded across a 716.02-point range for the day, equal to 1.37% of its closing value, according to WSJ quotes at 4:20 p.m. EDT.
| Dow measure | Level / move |
|---|---|
| Open | 52,231.18 |
| Intraday high | 52,742.66 |
| Intraday low | 52,026.64 |
| Close | 52,305.24 |
| High-to-close fade | -437.42 points |
| Full day range | 716.02 points |
The Dow outperformed the S&P 500 (INDEXSP:.INX) and Nasdaq Composite (INDEXNASDAQ:.IXIC) for most of the session, but steady blue-chip demand wasn’t enough to keep the Dow positive by the close, even after a new record earlier in the day. The S&P 500 dropped 16.13 points to 7,483.23. The Nasdaq fell 173.69 points to 26,040.03.
| Index | Close | Daily change | Week to date | Year to date |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Dow Jones Industrial Average | 52,305.24 | down 13.96 points, or 0.03% | up 0.8% for the week | up 8.8% in 2024 |
| S&P 500 | 7,483.23 | fell 16.13 points, or 0.22% | up 1.8% so far this week | has risen 9.3% this year |
| Nasdaq Composite | 26,040.03 | lost 173.69 points, or 0.66% | gained 2.9% this week | up 12.0% year to date |
| Russell 2000 | 3,012.59 | down 11.78 points, or 0.39% | up just 0.1% for the week | up 21.4% this year |
The Dow’s reshuffle got its first test. S&P Dow Jones Indices put Alphabet Inc. NASDAQ:GOOGL in before the bell Monday, taking the spot from Verizon Communications Inc. NYSE:VZ. The index operator said Verizon’s share price was so low it gave the stock less than a half-point weight in the Dow. Since the Dow uses price weighting across its 30 blue-chip names, stocks with higher prices can swing the index more than market cap alone.
The Dow topped 52,700 early, with Salesforce Inc. NYSE:CRM, International Business Machines Corp. NYSE:IBM and Nike Inc. NYSE:NKE leading gains, FactSet data reported by MarketWatch showed. But that move didn’t hold through the close.
Tech continued to drive the broader market. Meta Platforms Inc. NASDAQ:META traded higher after news that it’s working on a new cloud arm to sell unused AI computing power, but chip stocks dragged down the S&P 500 and Nasdaq. “This does seem to be something that is likely to continue to help the stock,” said Tim Ghriskey, senior portfolio strategist at Ingalls & Snyder in New York, about Meta. Reuters
Rates held up after Federal Reserve Chairman Kevin Warsh dampened talk of fast easing. “It increasingly looks like investors’ early assumption that a Warsh-led Fed would quickly cut rates will not play out,” said Oren Klachkin, financial market economist at Nationwide, after Warsh spoke. Reuters
The Dow got some help from the macro data, but rate worries stayed in play. ISM’s US manufacturing PMI came in at 53.3 for June, down from 54.0 in May, but still above the 50 mark. “The manufacturing sector still seems to be in relatively good health,” said Oliver Allen, senior U.S. economist at Pantheon Macroeconomics. ADP reported private payrolls rose by 98,000 in June after 122,000 in May. Planned layoffs dropped 53% to 45,849. Andy Challenger at Challenger, Gray and Christmas said AI “continues to reshape how companies think about headcount.” Reuters
The U.S. monthly jobs numbers come out Thursday. NYSE will close Friday, July 3, for Independence Day observed, so the week ends early ahead of July 4.
