U.S. stocks close mixed as optical networking, storage and chip names rise while Neocloud stocks fall

U.S. stocks ended Wednesday slightly lower overall, according to market data from BIT (bit.com), while several technology-related groups moved in different directions. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was initially down 0.2%, the S&P 500 slipped 0.02%, and the Nasdaq fell 0.08% at the close. Within optical communications, most names posted gains. Lumentum (LITE) rose 6.04%, Ciena (CIEN) added 4.26%, Corning (GLW) gained 3.81%, Astera Labs (ALAB) climbed 2.71%, and Coherent (COHR) advanced 2.09%. Storage stocks were also mostly higher. Western Digital (WDC) rose 4.02%, Seagate Technology (STX) gained 3.01%, SanDisk (SNDK) added 1.26%, and Micron Technology (MU) edged up 0.58%. Chip stocks mostly finished in positive territory as well. Arm rose 3.93%, Marvell Technology (MRVL) and Qualcomm (QCOM) each gained 1.97%, and Intel (INTC) added 0.87%. Nvidia (NVDA), however, fell 1.59%. By contrast, the Neocloud segment declined across the board. IREN dropped 6.23%, Nebius (NBIS) fell 3.62%, Core Scientific (CORZ) lost 3.38%, and TeraWulf (WULF) slipped 2.14%.