With the earnings season in full swing, the S&P 500 slipped 0.51% to 6,882.7 points, the Dow Jones rose 0.53% to 49,501.3 points, while the Nasdaq 100 fell 1.77% to end at 24,891.2 points.

Alphabet shares fell 1.96% ahead of the release of its quarterly results, published after trading. The parent company of Google and YouTube said that it expects to invest between $175bn and $185bn in 2026, well above market expectations, an announcement that was frowjned on by investors, with the stock flat in after-hours trading.

The session was marked by the collapse of Advanced Micro Devices, whose shares plunged 17.31% after it issued quarterly revenue guidance below expectations. The announcement revived doubts about the chipmaker's ability to compete sustainably with Nvidia in the segment of AI-focused chips.

Several software publishers continued their recent declines, amid fears that rapid advances in AI could undermine the business models of established players in the sector. Snowflake fell 4.59%, while Datadog shed 3.30%.

At the same time, investors rotated out of the stocks most exposed to AI to reposition themselves on companies seen as cheaper and less dependent on the technology. In that vein, Apple gained 2.6%, with the group increasingly viewed as a tech giant relatively independent of the artificial intelligence race.

Going against the trend, Super Micro Computer surged 12.2% after raising its annual revenue forecast, buoyed by still-strong demand for its AI-focused servers.

Defensive stocks also drew inflows, such as pharmaceutical company Eli Lilly, whose shares jumped 10.39% after it announced 2026 profit guidance above Wall Street expectations.

On the macroeconomic front, the national employment report from ADP, published on Wednesday, showed private-sector job creation in the United States came in below expectations in January, against a backdrop of job cuts in professional services, business services and manufacturing.