Wall Street's major averages closed slightly lower on Thursday, after spending most of the session making small moves on either side of the flat line.

Gold scaled a record peak on Thursday, as investors sought the safe-haven asset in response to escalating global trade tensions and tumbling equity markets, following U.S. President Donald Trump's announcement of new auto tariffs.

Spot gold climbed 1% to $3,055.14 an ounce as of 07:52 p.m. ET after hitting an all-time high of $3059.30. Bullion has hit 17 record highs this year.

Market Snapshot

The benchmark S&P 500 ended -0.3%, while the Nasdaq Composite concluded -0.5%. The Dow settled -0.4%.

Market Movers

Nippon Steel and U.S. Steel are in active talks about a deal that would offer $55 per share to U.S. Steel, Semafor reporter Rohan Goswami said in a post on X. U.S. Steel jumped 8% in after hours trading.

Tesla rose 0.4% after the president said there was "absolutely no tariff" for cars made in the U.S. Will Scharf, a White House aide, said the new tariffs would apply to "foreign made cars and light trucks." Electric-vehicle company Tesla assembles all the cars it sells in the U.S. within the country but does source parts from other countries that would be subject to tariffs. Shares of the electric-vehicle company declined 5.6% on Wednesday, ending a five-session winning streak.

Traditional auto makers General Motors, Ford Motor, and Jeep maker Stellantis traded lower following the tariffs announcement. Barron's has noted that GM assembles about 55% of the cars it sells in the U.S. inside the country's borders, the same as Stellantis, while the figure for Ford is about 80%. GM was down 7.4%, Ford fell 3.9%, and Stellantis declined 1.3%.

Used-car seller CarMax gained 2.5% while Carvana was down 0.5%. Consumers could turn to used cars, which don't face the same import tariffs.

Technology stocks were down Thursday after falling significantly on Wednesday. Super Micro Computer, the maker of artificial-intelligence servers, was down 6.3% after dropping 8.9% on Wednesday, while Nvidia, the leading maker of AI chips, fell 2.1% on Thursday after closing down 5.7% in the previous session. The U.S. added about 80 companies, including more than 50 in China, to its export control list, which requires government approval before the companies can buy American technology. " Nvidia getting ensnared in the U.S.-China trade dispute is a negative development," Gil Luria, a D.A. Davidson analyst, told MarketWatch in an email.

Advanced Micro Devices fell 3.2% to $106.65 as analysts at Jefferies downgraded the chip maker to Hold from Buy and reduced their price target to 120 from $135. Jefferies cited AMD's "limited traction" in artificial intelligence and rising competition for the downgrade.

GameStop tumbled 22% after announcing plans for a private offering of $1.3 billion in convertible senior notes, aiming to use the proceeds for general corporate purposes, including to invest in Bitcoin. The company said Tuesday that its board approved " the addition of Bitcoin as a treasury reserve asset." Shares rose 12% on Wednesday.

Jefferies Financial Group reported fiscal first-quarter earnings of 57 cents a share, down from 69 cents a year earlier. The company said it experienced a "meaningful decline in asset management investment return compared to the prior-year quarter," adding that "capital markets have become increasingly more challenging due to the uncertainties that have arisen around U.S. policy and geopolitical events." The stock declined 10%.

Soleno Therapeutics soared 38% after receiving approval for Vykat XR, a treatment for hyperphagia in adults and children over four years old with Prader-Willi syndrome, a rare genetic disorder caused by a chromosomal abnormality.

Winnebago Industries rose 8.1% after the motor home and towables maker reported better-than-expected fiscal second-quarter adjusted earnings and revenue.

Fiscal first-quarter adjusted earnings and revenue at Concentrix were better than expected and the technology company raised its fiscal-year revenue projections. The stock jumped 42%.

Verint Systems declined 13% after the software company posted fiscal fourth-quarter adjusted earnings that missed analysts' estimates and issued a fiscal-year forecast that also was below consensus.

Steelcase, the office-furniture company, rose 6.6% after fiscal fourth-quarter earnings and revenue topped Wall Street forecasts. Steelcase also issued guidance for the first quarter that was better than expectations.

TD Synnex dropped 14%. The IT-services company's adjusted earnings in its fiscal first quarter missed analysts' estimates and its forecast for the current second quarter also was shy of expectations.

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