ISTANBUL

The New York Stock Exchange ended mostly with gains on Wednesday, led by tech stocks following a federal court ruling in an antitrust lawsuit against Google.

The Nasdaq climbed 1.03%, or 218.1 points, to close at 21,497.73. The S&P 500 added 0.51%, or 32.72 points, to 6,448.26.

On the other hand, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 0.05%, or 24.58 points, to close at 45,271.23.

The shares of Google's Alphabet climbed 9.14% after a US federal court ruled Tuesday that Google is not required to sell its Chrome browser as part of an antitrust lawsuit.

The ruling mostly relied on the notion that artificial intelligence has given customers more options, avoiding the worst-case scenario for the tech giant, and also giving hope to the investors that the tech giants would be able to withstand regulatory pressures.

Moreover, the ruling meant that Apple could continue to preload Google Search into iPhones. The shares of Apple, which is also dealing with its own antitrust issue, increased by 3.81%.

Regarding the overall state of the economy, the Fed's Beige Book showed on Wednesday "little or no change" in US economic activity.

It also noted that most Fed districts expect price increases to continue in the months ahead.

On the data side, US factory orders fell 1.3% month-on-month in July, continuing the downward trend from the previous month, also matching the estimates.

US job openings hit 7.2 million in July, below estimates, according to the Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey (JOLTS).