Equity markets took a breather on Tuesday as investors weighed fresh risk-off flows against a run of recent record closes. The Dow Jones Industrial Average slipped, while the S&P 500 and Nasdaq — both of which posted new highs in the opening days of the week — ended the session lower amid a rotation toward defensive assets.

The S&P 500 fell roughly 0.4%, the Nasdaq dipped about 0.6% and the Dow retreated near 0.2%, reversing some of the gains that pushed benchmarks to milestones earlier in the week. Traders said the pullback followed four straight sessions of record closes for the S&P and Nasdaq, and came as headlines around a potential short-term government funding standoff and mixed economic readings crept back into focus.

“After several days of steady buying, we saw profit-taking in higher-multiple names and a reallocation into stores of value,” said Maya Patel, senior strategist at Riverfront Capital. “That process pushed money into gold and other hedges even as the market’s structural uptrend remains intact.”

Gold futures eclipsed $4,000 an ounce for the first time, a symbolic threshold that reflected a combination of falling real yields and demand for safe havens. The precious metal rose about 3% on the day, closing just above $4,000 after touching intraday highs. Market participants noted that a decline in Treasury real yields — driven by modestly softer economic data and growing uncertainty about fiscal negotiations in Washington — has made gold more attractive despite elevated opportunity costs earlier this year.

Cryptocurrencies also registered fresh records earlier in the week, with Bitcoin reaching new highs on optimism around institutional demand and spot-market inflows. Gold’s surge and digital-asset strength together underline a broader appetite for uncorrelated stores of value even as equities climb.

Technology and growth stocks powered the earlier rally. Semiconductor maker AMD soared after announcing a partnership with OpenAI, a move that sent the shares up sharply on Oct. 6 and helped push the Nasdaq and S&P to closing records. The deal renewed investor enthusiasm for artificial intelligence-related hardware suppliers, a theme that has been central to the market’s leadership in recent months.

But macro questions are rear-guarding the advance. Investors remain focused on inflation readings, labor-market durability and the Federal Reserve’s path for rates. Treasury yields eased modestly over the session; the 10-year yield slipped several basis points, supporting both gold and longer-duration equity assets.

September’s data had already shown resilience: the S&P gained for a fifth consecutive month, a rare stretch of breadth that helped extend the market’s bull phase into early October. Still, analysts caution that episodic volatility — tied to fiscal brinksmanship, geopolitical developments and the timing of any Fed policy shifts — could produce further whipsaws.

“Markets are threading a narrow path between growth optimism and policy uncertainty,” said Patel. “That tug-of-war is likely to mean more headline-driven moves, and investors should expect tactical rotations even as the longer-term uptrend persists.”