Stocks fell lower on Wednesday as investors cautiously traded ahead of another round of weekly jobless claims data on Thursday and the latest personal consumption expenditures (PCE) reading on Friday.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average (DIA  ) lost nearly 0.4% to settle at 46,121.28, while the S&P 500 Index (SPY  ) closed 0.3% lower at 6,637.97. The tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite (QQQ  ) also declined over 0.3% to end the session at 22,497.85.

Some market participants may also be taking some profits out of Wall Street after Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell noted in remarks on Tuesday that "equity prices are fairly highly valued" currently, while others are watching the developments surrounding a potential government shutdown ahead of the Sept. 30 deadline.

The artificial intelligence industry remains one of the main drivers behind the market's swings, with Alibaba (BABA  ) shares rising on Wednesday after the Chinese e-commerce giant announced the expansion of its global data center network into Brazil, France and the Netherlands. The company also plans to add facilities in South Korea, Mexico, Japan, Malaysia and Dubai over the next year.

"The speed of AI industry development has far exceeded our expectations, and the industry's demand for AI infrastructure has also far exceeded our expectations," CEO Eddie Wu said at the company's annual Apsara Conference on Wednesday. Alibaba also unveiled its largest AI language model, the Qwen3-Max, at the event.

Other AI players like Oracle (ORCL  ) announced the sell of corporate notes maturing between 2030 and 2065 on Wednesday, while Marvell Technology (MRVL  ) said its board has authorized a new $5 billion stock buyback.

Oracle said in a filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission that net proceeds will be "used for general corporate purposes," including capital expenditures, debt repayments, future investments or acquisitions, as well as cash dividend on or repurchases of its common stock.

Marvell CEO Matt Murphy said the company's "strong balance sheet provides us the flexibility to continue investing in long-term growth, particularly as we pursue the large and expanding opportunity in accelerated infrastructure for AI."

On the earnings front, shares of Micron Technology (MU  ) initially rose before falling lower on Wednesday after the chip manufacturer delivered strong quarterly results on both top and bottom lines and issued better-than-expected current quarter revenue guidance. The company, which is one of the world's leading suppliers of DRAM and NAND flash memory chips, expects its fiscal first-quarter revenue to be about $12.5 billion.

JPMorgan analyst Harlan Sur hiked the firm's price target on Micron following the earnings report, now calling for $220 from its previous $185. Sur expects Micron to command up to 23% of the high-bandwidth memory market in 2026, adding that its realized share is "likely to exceed that level."

"Next year's HBM production/pricing is expected to be contractually secured over the next several months," he said.

Elsewhere, shares of Lithium Americas (LAC  ) soared over 90% on Wednesday after Reuters reported that the Trump administration is exploring an equity stake amounting to as much as 10% in the mining company. The proposal comes as the company renegotiates the terms of the Department of Energy's $2.2 billion loan for its Thacker Pass mine project in Nevada, Reuters reports.

General Motors (GM  ) also holds a 38% stake in the lithium mine project, which would be the Western Hemisphere's largest lithium source once its open, the report said.

In economic news, sales of newly built U.S. homes rose at a larger-than-expected 20.5% clip in August compared with July, the U.S. Census reported Wednesday, marking the biggest one-month gain since August 2022. Sales rose 15.4% annually.

"We were expecting a gain but not that large," said Robert Dietz, chief economist at the National Association of Home Builders, in a statement. "Always important to remember the margin of error for new home sales is large. We'll need to wait for revisions next month and the September data point to see if this is smoothed out."

Looking ahead, investors will turn their attention towards another series of Fedspeak, alongside the latest unemployment claims data and the third estimate on second-quarter GDP on Thursday. Key earnings reports for the day include KB Home (KBH  ), Accenture (ACN  ) and Costco Wholesale (COST  ).