S&P 500 falls for a fourth day, Nasdaq posts back-to-back losses as tech names slide: Live updates

Traders work at the New York Stock Exchange on August 20, 2025.

NYSE

Wednesday saw another day of heavy tech selling.

TheS&P 500shed 0.24% to close at 6,395.78. TheDow Jones Industrial Averageadded 16.04 points, or 0.04%, ending at 44,938.31. The tech-heavyNasdaq Compositelost 0.67% to settle the session at 21,172.86.

— Pia Singh

News last week that famed investors including Berkshire Hathaway‘s Warren Buffett are scooping up shares of UnitedHealth have given the health insurer quite the boost. Shares have surged more than 11% over the past week, but remain down 40% year to date.

Despite the increased investor interest, Morgan Stanley analyst Erin Wright is trimming back her UnitedHealth estimates and price target.

“We are lowering our estimates & Price Target to reflect a more prolonged turnaround story post 2Q revelations,” Wright told clients in a reseach note. She said there is the potential for UnitedHealth to top estimates as its recovery plays out. However, she is making “more conservative assumptions at this juncture.”

Among the signals Wright is looking for are some proof that the company’s Medicare Advantage and its Optum Health businesses can improve their margins.

Wright’s new price target is $325, down from $342, and suggests shares could rise 12% from Tuesday’s close.

—Christina Cheddar Berk

Shares of Novavax shed about 7.5% following a downgrade at Bank of America to underperform from neutral Wednesday. The bank also cut its price target to $7 from $9, implying 5% downside from Tuesday’s close.

Analyst Alec Stranahan cited the stock’s recent run higher and the vaccine maker’s murky outlook for the call. He believes the commercialization of the Nuvaxovid Covid-19 shot could face obstacles to meaningful revenue growth.

In addition, “we expect the higher burden of proof and cost for pivotal trials under the new FDA framework may raise the bar for signing new partnerships for Novavax’s COVID-19/influenza combination (CIC) vaccine program,” he wrote in a note to clients.

The stock has gained nearly 9.5% so far this year.

— Michelle Fox

JPMorgan Chase purchasing the roughly $19 billion Apple credit card portfolio from Goldman Sachs could be a win for both firms, according to Wells Fargo.

“[T]here are a number of strategic and financial synergies from targeting personalized marketing efforts to a loyal customer base to layering a card portfolio on what is already one of the most efficient consumer banking platforms,” analyst Mike Mayo wrote in a Tuesday note. “JPM would likely leverage its large consumer data set to enhance underwriting and improve personalized marketing and offers; this could be aided by Apple’s and JPM’s strong brand recognition and loyalty.”

— Brian Evans

Federal Reserve officials signaled concern over inflation and the labor market at their July policy meeting while the majority still maintained that its too soon for a rate cut, according to minutes released Wednesday.

“Participants generally pointed to risks to both sides of the Committee’s dual mandate, emphasizing upside risk to inflation and downside risk to employment,” the minutes said. While “a majority of participants judged the upside risk to inflation as the greater of these two risks” a couple saw “downside risk to employment the more salient risk.”

— Brian Evans

Here are some of the stocks posting the biggest moves in midday trading Wednesday.

• Palantir Technologies— The defense technology company headed for a sixth consecutive losing day, dropping more than 2% on Wednesday. If Palantir closes in negative territory, that will mark its first six-day losing run since April 2024. Shares have more than doubled in 2025.
• Medtronic— The medical device company saw shares pop 4% after giving guidance that was better than hoped. For the 2026 fiscal year, the company sees a tariff impact of about $185 million, down from its earlier range of roughly $200 million to $250 million. Medtronic also lifted its non-GAAP guidance for the year to a range of $5.60 to $5.66 per share, up from its earlier call for $5.50 to $5.60 per share and topping the FactSet consensus of $5.55 per share.
• Avis Budget— Shares of the car rental company slipped 5%. Bank of Americadowngraded Avis to underperformfrom buy. “We think that CAR fundamentals and the macro environment don’t support the current stock price which significantly outperformed the market in June,” the firm said.

For the full list, read here.

— Pia Singh

The VanEck Semiconductor ETF (SMH) fell for a second straight session on Wednesday, putting the fund on track for its worst week since May.

The ETF fell more than 1% in the session, bringing its week-to-date losses near 3%. That would mark its worst week since May, when shares fell 3.6% in a week.

SMH ETF, 1-day

Intel and Micron led the fund lower on Wednesday, posting slides of more than 6% and 5%, respectively. Marvell and Taiwan Semiconductor were also among the worst performers, with each losing more than 2%.

— Alex Harring

The worst-performing stocks in the Dow this year have recovered some losses in recent days.

UnitedHealth shares have dropped more than 40% in 2025. But over the last five trading days, the stock has climbed more than 9%.

Salesforce and Merck have tumbled more than 26% and 14%, respectively. Both stocks have added more than 3% over the last five days.

— Alex Harring

Technology stocks account for roughly 40% of the market’s largest decliners in late morning trading Wednesday and just 5% of the largest advancers.

Only Analog Devices, up about 2.6%, lands in the top 20 percentage gains in the S&P 1500 index, comprised of the largecap S&P 500, midcap S&P 400 and smallcap S&P 600.

By contrast, about eight out of 20 of the market’s largest losers consist of tech shares, led by Palantir, down 7.3%, Ichor Holdings, off by 7.1%, Intel, lower by 7%, Micron Technology, down 5.8%, and Dell Technologies, off 4.9%.

— Scott Schnipper

Shares of Palantir have lost more than 17% this week, making it the worst performing stock in the S&P 500 as investors take profits from technology and semiconductor companies with high valuations.

Palantir shares were down another 7% on Wednesday, the sixth consecutive session that the stock has fallen. The artificial intelligence software provider had hit all-time highs after reporting strong financial results earlier this month.

— Spencer Kimball

Wall Street tech bull Dan Ives is looking at Tuesday’s sell-off in technology stocks as an opportunity to own “core winners” in the artificial intelligence space.

“Skepticism will persist and on the sell-offs with some volatility the bears will come out of hibernation mode and try to spark more white knuckle moments … this is a dynamic we have seen play out again and again since January 2023,” Ives, Wedbush Securities global head of technology research, said in a Wednesday morning post on X. “In our view the tech bull cycle will be well intact at least for another 2-3 years given the trillions being spent on AI infrastructure/software/chips/power/apps looking ahead. This remains our tech playbook and investor road map.”

The tech-heavyNasdaq Compositeon Tuesday fell 1.46% to settle at 21,314.95. Shares of several megacap tech and semiconductor names, such as Nvidia, Advanced Micro Devices and Palantir, declined during the session.

— Pia Singh

Here are some of the names moving before the bell:

• TJX — The discount retailer gained 4.5% after reporting earnings of $1.10 per share on revenues of $14.40 billion. That topped the LSEG consensus estimate earnings of $1.01 per share on revenues of $14.13 billion.
• Analog Devices — Shares added 3% following the semiconductor company’s earnings and revenue beat. Analog Devices also upped its fourth-quarter guidance.
• Chip companies — Shares of some chips manufacturers slipped after Reuters reported that the Trump administration is considering taking equity stakes in those companies that receive funding from the CHIPS Act. Micron dropped 3%, while Intel, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing and AMD were all down about 1%.

To see more stocks making premarket moves, read the full story here.

—Michelle Fox

EL 5D chart

Shares fell after the beauty company guided for fiscal 2026 adjusted earnings to come in at a range of between $1.90 to $2.10 per share, below FactSet’s consensus estimate of $2.20. The company also expects fiscal 2026 year-over-year revenue growth of 2.5%, less than the expected 2.6%.

Additionally, Estée Lauder said it expects tariff-related headwinds to impact profitability for its fiscal 2026 year by approximately $100 million.

However, for its last-quarter earnings Estée Lauder reported a slight revenue beat and adjusted earnings that were in line with expectations.

— Lisa Kailai Han

Shares of Hertzjumped more than 9.5% in early morning trading Wednesday after the company announced it will start selling pre-owned vehicles onAmazonAutos. The partnership gives the car rental company more visibility and a potential profit boost for its car sales business.

Under the partnership, customers can browse from thousands of used Hertz vehicles onAmazon Autos, e-sign the paperwork, complete their purchase online and pick up their vehicle at Hertz locations. More on the announcement here.

— Pia Singh, Ali McCadden

Lowe’s shares popped 4% in the premarket after the company’s second-quarter earnings beat expectations. The home improvement retailer earned $4.33 per share, beating an LSEG forecast of $4.24 per share.

Lowe’s also announced it is buying Foundation Building Materials for $8.8 billion in a move aimed at bolstering its home professional business.

LOW 5-day chart

Target shares fell 8% after the company reported another quarter in which sales declined.

The retailer said comparable store sales fell 1.9% year over year. Consumer transactions also fell 1.3%, while the average amount consumers spent on those transactions slid by 0.6%.

On top of that, Target announced longtime CEO Brian Cornell would leave his post in February. Chief operating officer Michael Fiddelke, a 20-year veteran at the company, will become chief executive on Feb. 1.

TGT 5-day chart

President Donald Trump’s move to grant savers greater access to alternative assets in 401(k) plans hasn’t been enough to spare private equity stocks from a rocky August.

Blackstone, KKR, Apollo and Ares Management are on pace to snap multi-month winning streaks. All four of the names are down between 2.7% and 5.7% in August, and they are also lagging the S&P 500 on a year-to-date basis.

Apollo Global Management in the past month

Carlyle Group is a notable exception, tracking for its fourth consecutive monthly gain – up 3.2% in August.

The Wall Street Journal reports that some investors fear the firms will have a hard time selling their older investments at good prices in order to realize gains – and that worry could be weighing on the stocks.

— Adrian van Hauwermeiren, Darla Mercado

Long-dated government bonds of 10 years or more “have been under serious pressure at times this year,” thanks to waning demand from traditional buyers, and “we doubt it’s coming back,” Capital Economics head of markets for Asia-Pacific Thomas Mathews wrote Tuesday.

The problem is that central banks themselves — as part of their move to normalize monetary policy and reduce their balance sheets — have stepped back from supporting the longer end of the market since the days of Quantitative Easing and zero interest rate policy.

“They’d provided a key source of demand for government bonds across the curve, and in many places held a very large share of the market. Demand has picked up from other sources to offset this reduction in demand from central banks. But, it hasn’t mostly been from institutions that typically purchase very-long-dated government bonds,” Mathews wrote.

“In the absence of genuine fiscal adjustment, which generally seems unlikely to us, we suspect that the very long end of the curve will remain volatile. And there’s a good chance that yields rise … again, at least for a while,” Mathews added.

— Scott Schnipper

These are some of the stocks making notable after-hours moves:

• La-Z-Boy — Shares tumbled more than 21%. The manufacturer of recliners posted earnings of 47 cents per share, excluding items, in the fiscal first quarter, while analysts polled by FactSet penciled in 53 cents. The company also gave weaker-than-expected guidance for current-quarter revenue.
• Toll Brothers — The luxury homebuilder shed 1.6% despite beating expectations on both lines for the fiscal third quarter. Toll Brothers earned $3.73 per share on $2.88 billion in revenue, while Wall Street anticipated $3.60 a share and $2.85 billion, per LSEG.

— Alex Harring

Futures tied to the Dow, S&P 500 and Nasdaq 100 were all little changed shortly after 6 p.m. ET.

— Alex Harring