Dow notches record-high close while tech-heavy Nasdaq slips

STORY: Wall Street's main indexes ended mixed on Wednesday, with the Dow gaining more than two-thirds of a percent to notch another record high close, the S&P 500 ending roughly flat and the Nasdaq slipping a quarter of a percent.Investors focused on a likely end to the longest government shutdown in U.S. history, with the House of Representatives poised to vote on a stopgap funding package. If passed, President Donald Trump is expected to sign the bill into law.That propped up Dow stalwarts such as Goldman Sachs and UnitedHealth Group, with each gaining 3.5%.But the Nasdaq slid again, as some tech-related heavyweights lost ground. Tesla and Amazon fell about 2%, Palantir lost about 3.5% and Oracle declined nearly 4%.Kevin Nicholson is an investment expert at RiverFront Investment Group."Well, the Nasdaq has been volatile over the last couple of weeks just because you had so many companies that are chasing the AI train, and some are being successful at it, and others aren't. And, you know, the market is really concerned about the level of spending that is going towards AI for each individual company. And for some companies, it makes sense, and for others, it doesn't. And so right now, I think the market is trying to pick the winners and losers thus far as it pertains to AI.":: AMDAmong Wednesday's winners, AMD rallied 9% after the chip designer unveiled a $100 billion data-center revenue target.:: FileAnd Cisco Systems, up 3% at the close, soared higher in extended trading after the company raised its forecast for full-year profit and revenue, banking on multi-billion-dollar data center expansions.

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