Wall Street’s Blistering Rally Lost Steam On Thursday. Stocks Were Mixed.

Stocks were mixed on Wednesday following a blistering rally that sent indexes to all-time highs.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average made new gains, climbing 0.49%, while the S&P 500 edged down, falling 0.17% The tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite underperformed, declining 0.83%.

Google underperformed, falling almost 4% after the company announced a reshuffling of its AI department. Longtime chief scientist Jeff Dean is leaving after 27 years and will start his own company. He will be replaced by the CEO of DeepMind Demis Hassabis, who will also be the chairman of that unit.

“After an incredible 27-year run, Jeff Dean is at a moment where he wants to try something new, and we’re excited to support him in that,” company CEO Sundar Pichai said in a blog post. He will be joined by Sanjay Ghemawat, also a senior employee. The company’s shares fell more than 4% at 1:39 p.m. ET following the news.

Hassabis, on his end, said that “that now is the right time for me to hand over my day-to-day operational responsibilities at GDM, so that I have the time and space to focus on the big picture and help influence what is to come to the best of my ability.” Elsewhere, DeepMind technology chief Koray Kavukcuoglu will be the new head of the AI division.

The geopolitical mood was also optimistic on Wednesday as a deal to reopen the Strait of Hormuz appeared to make progress. The U.S. removed sanctions from entities tied to Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, according to a new report.

Reuters detailed that the U.S. ​Treasury Department’s ​website no longer shows sanctions on two aircraft and three airlines tied to the powerful group in the country.

President Donald Trump had said that the U.S. is having “very good discussions” with Iran and a deal to reopen the Strait of Hormuz could be announced imminently.

Speaking to press on Tuesday night, Trump said “a lot of progress has been made” and the key waterway is “going to be open very soon.”

However, he again reiterated that if “hey back out again, they are going to get hit really hard.”

Earlier on Tuesday, U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent expressed optimism about the possibility of reaching a deal.

Asked whether Iran will be allowed to charge a toll for passage, as it has said it is willing to do, he was not specific but said the agreement would allow freedom of navigation in the waterway. “Even though things are still a little dicey there over the past few days, we saw quite a few ships coming out even now.”