(Recasts with preliminary close of trading, adds market details )
US job openings decline more than expected in November
Trump says his administration will ban Wall St from buying single-family homes
JPMorgan dips after analyst downgrade
By Noel Randewich
NEW YORK, Jan 7 (Reuters) - The S&amp;P 500 ended lower on Wednesday, pulled down by declines in JPMorgan, Blackstone and other financials, while Nvidia and Alphabet lifted the Nasdaq as investors shifted toward AI-related stocks.
The drop in the S&amp;P 500 followed an intraday record high earlier in the session. Shares of housing acquisition companies tumbled after President Donald Trump said he was moving to ban Wall Street investors from buying single-family homes, in a bid to reduce home prices.
Blackstone (BX.N) and Apollo Global Management dropped, contributing to a decline in the S&amp;P 500 financials index (.SPSY) . American Homes 4 Rent (AMH.N) also fell.
Real estate platform Zillow (ZG.O) moved higher.
JPMorgan Chase (JPM.N) fell after Wolfe Research downgraded the bank to “peer perform” from “outperform.”
Northrop Grumman (NOC.O) and Lockheed Martin (LMT.N) lost ground after Trump said he would not permit dividends or stock buybacks for defense companies until they fix problems with the production of military equipment. In his social media post, Trump did not mention specific companies.
Nvidia (NVDA.O) , Microsoft (MSFT.O) and Alphabet (GOOGL.O) rose as investors shifted back into AI stocks following recent worries they were overvalued. Underscoring investor appetite for heavyweight AI players, Anthropic is planning a multibillion-dollar fundraise that would value the Claude chatbot maker at $350 billion. That would make the privately held company more valuable than the vast majority of corporations, including Advanced Micro Devices (AMD.O) , Chevron (CVX.N) and Wells Fargo (WFC.N) .
“Investors have come into 2026 with a similar playbook to last year: Buy tech and forget about it. Rumors that the AI trade was done turned out not to be true,” said Jake Dollarhide, chief executive officer of Longbow Asset Management in Tulsa, Oklahoma.
Heading into fourth-quarter earnings season in the next few weeks, valuations on Wall Street remain relatively pricey. The S&amp;P 500 is trading at about 22 times expected earnings, down from 23 in November, but above the index’s five-year average of 19, according to LSEG data.
According to preliminary data, the S&amp;P 500 (.SPX) lost 23.64 points, or 0.34%, to end at 6,921.18 points, while the Nasdaq Composite (.IXIC) gained 39.30 points, or 0.17%, to 23,586.47. The Dow Jones Industrial Average (.DJI) fell 472.60 points, or 0.96%, to 48,999.39. Data on Wednesday showed U.S. job openings fell more than expected in November after rising marginally in October, while a separate ADP report showed that private payrolls increased less than expected in December.
While the latest labor market datasets mark a return to the standard release of economic data disrupted by the U.S. government shutdown, they did little to change expectations of interest rate cuts from the Federal Reserve ahead of Friday’s key government payrolls report. Investors were also monitoring geopolitical developments after the U.S. said it seized a Russian-flagged, Venezuela-linked tanker as part of Trump’s aggressive push to dictate oil flows in the Americas and force Caracas’ socialist government to become its ally. The White House said on Tuesday that Trump was discussing options for acquiring Greenland, including potential use of the U.S. military.
Memory and storage technology companies gave up some of their gains following a recent rally. Western Digital (WDC.O) and Seagate Technology (STX.O) both fell. First Solar (FSLR.O) tumbled after Jefferies downgraded the solar panel maker’s rating to “hold” from “buy.”
S&amp;P 500 PE valuation
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The S&P 500 closed lower, down 0.34%, influenced by declines in financial stocks like JPMorgan and Blackstone, while the Nasdaq gained 0.17% due to a shift towards AI stocks, including Nvidia and Alphabet. President Trump's announcement to ban Wall Street from buying single-family homes impacted housing stocks negatively. Job openings fell more than expected in November, and the market remains cautious ahead of upcoming earnings reports. The Dow Jones dropped 0.96%.

- The S&P 500 declined by 23.64 points, closing at 6,921.18, influenced by drops in financial stocks like JPMorgan and Blackstone, while the Nasdaq gained due to interest in AI stocks.  
- U.S. job openings fell more than anticipated in November, and private payroll growth for December was also lower than expected, impacting market sentiment.  
- Geopolitical tensions arose as the U.S. seized a Russian-flagged tanker, reflecting ongoing strategic moves by the Trump administration to influence oil flows in the Americas.

US STOCKS-S&P 500 ends lower; AI stocks lift Nasdaq