Meta Jumps 9% as Chip Profit-Taking Cools Stocks

After the record-setting quarter we wrapped in yesterday's evening review, the first session of the second half was a quiet exhale. The chip trade that powered stocks to records finally saw some profit-taking, and the three major indexes drifted apart: the Dow briefly printed a fresh record before fading, while the Nasdaq lagged. The single biggest story, though, was Meta, which broke ranks with a 9 percent surge on a bold pivot. Here is how the US cash session actually played out.

The Close: A Mixed, Muted Start to Q3

There was no follow-through to Tuesday's records. The S&P 500 slipped 0.22 percent to 7,483.23, the Nasdaq Composite fell 0.66 percent to 26,040.03 as the day's laggard, and the Dow Jones Industrial Average edged down just 0.03 percent to 52,305.24. The Dow's flat finish masked real drama: it surged to a fresh intraday record of 52,742.66 in the morning before retreating through the afternoon. After the strongest quarter for US stocks since 2020, a pause on the first day of Q3 is unsurprising, with focus also turning to the Fed leadership race and former governor Kevin Warsh, per Schwab.

Story of the Day: Meta Breaks Ranks

While the megacap complex cooled, one name went vertical. Meta Platforms rose nearly 9 percent after announcing it will launch a cloud business and sell its excess computing power, a move that opens a fresh revenue line and reframes its enormous AI infrastructure spend as a potential profit center rather than a cost sink, per CNBC. The rest of the tech tape went the other way. Investors dumped semiconductor names to lock in gains after the group rocketed more than 80 percent in the first half, the exact trade that snapped back so hard on Tuesday. The rotation left the Nasdaq red even as Meta powered higher, a reminder that a single stock can dominate the headline while the sector beneath it takes a breather.

Under the Surface: The Dow Fade and the H1 Scorecard

The Dow's round trip from record to flat had a clear culprit. Caterpillar pulled back almost 7 percent, the heavyweight industrial dragging the price-weighted index off its intraday high as the AI infrastructure beneficiary saw profit-taking of its own. Communications and financials did much of the day's lifting to keep the blue-chip index near unchanged. Zooming out, the first-half scorecard was remarkable: the Dow climbed 8.9 percent for its best first half since 2021, the S&P 500 rose 9.6 percent, the Nasdaq gained 12.8 percent, and the small-cap Russell 2000 surged nearly 22 percent for its best first half since 1991. Against that backdrop, a fractional down day barely registers.

Crypto Check: Bitcoin Reclaims $60K

The most encouraging turn came from the corner that was falling apart a day earlier. In yesterday's review we flagged $60,000 as the pivot that would be the first sign the panic was stabilising, and today Bitcoin clawed back to near $59,887, up about 0.1 percent over 24 hours and reclaiming the ground it lost when it slid below $59,000 on Tuesday. Ethereum steadied near $1,618, holding above $1,600 after probing multi-year lows. The move is modest and the extreme-fear backdrop has not fully cleared, but reclaiming the $60,000 area is exactly the kind of stabilisation the technical picture needed. The $58,000 zone remains the key reference support buyers defended last week; holding above it keeps the structure intact, while a decisive push back through $60,000 would strengthen the case that the worst of the flush is behind us.

After-Hours and Overnight Watch

The calendar now compresses into a holiday-shortened sprint. The main event is Thursday: because US markets close Friday July 3 for the observed Independence Day holiday, the June jobs report is pulled forward to Thursday July 2 at 12:30 UTC, the first major labor read since the June FOMC stripped the Fed's cutting bias. A hot print would harden the higher-for-longer narrative that has weighed on rate-sensitive corners, while a soft one could revive cut hopes. Commodities stay a background watch: WTI crude held near $70 as traders balanced US-Iran talks in Doha against warnings of a building supply glut, and gold eased to about $4,036 as the steady risk tone kept safe-haven demand subdued. The bullish read is a market that can pause without breaking after a monster quarter; the bearish risk is that thin holiday liquidity turns any jobs surprise into an outsized, gap-prone move. For the full schedule, check our economic calendar.

Day one of the second half was a controlled pause rather than a reversal: chips took a breather, the Dow flirted with a record before fading, and Meta stole the show with a cloud pivot that recasts its AI spending. The quiet bonus was crypto steadying back at $60,000. All of it now runs into an early jobs report and thin holiday trading. Bookmark this page and check our economic calendar for the live schedule into Thursday's labor data.