US markets end mixed; Dow Jones advances 0.55%, while NASDAQ sheds 0.57%

Wall Street ended mixed on Thursday as investors piled into defence shares and booked some profit in tech shares. The S&P 500 edged up 0.1% and the NASDAQ fell 0.57%, while the Dow Jones advanced 0.5%.

The advances in the US markets were primarily led by the defence shares like Lockheed Martin (+4.4%), Northrop Grumman (+2.4%), and Kratos Defense (+13.8%) as President Trump aims to spend $1.5 trillion on the defence budget.

On the other hand, semiconductor stocks like Nvidia (-2.2%), Micron Technology (-3.7%), Broadcom (-3.2%) and AMD (-2.5%) were the key draggers in Thursday’s trading session in the NASDAQ.

Investors are now waiting for the key data release on Friday to assess the healthiness in the US economy. The upcoming US non-farm payrolls data will give a major cue for the Federal Reserve on upcoming rate cuts.

Market participants expect a 25 bps point cut in the interest rate in 2026. Similarly, investors are also positioning themselves for the upcoming earnings season, which is expected to provide better insight on the impact of inflation, lower interest rates and tariffs on the corporate earnings.

In his overnight post on the social media platform, Truth Social, President Trump ordered his representatives to buy $200 billion mortgage bonds to bring down the housing costs. He wrote, “ Because I chose not to sell Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac in my first term, a truly great decision, and against the advice of the “experts”, it is now worth many times that amount - AN ABSOLUTE FORTUNE- and has $200 billions in cash. Because of this I am instructing my representatives to buy $200 billion in mortgage bonds. This will drive mortgage rates down, monthly payments down and make the cost of owning a home more affordable.”

Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac have been government owned since the 2008 financial crisis after they needed a government bailout to sail through.