US stocks were mixed in early trading Wednesday, with tech stocks continuing their record run but industrials muddling along.

File photo: Agencies

About 30 minutes into the session, the benchmark Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 0.1 percent to 28,217.95.

The tech-rich Nasdaq Composite Index was up 0.5 percent to 11,521.74, on track for another record, while the broad-based S&P 500 gained 0.1 percent to 3,447.66.

Markets are watching Hurricane Laura as it strengthens off the US Gulf coast, and are also awaiting the highly-anticipated speech by Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell on Thursday, which is expected to send signals about the trajectory of interest rates in coming months.

Government data showed a surge in durable goods orders, which jumped 11.2 percent, almost entirely due to the 35.6 percent jump in transportation equipment.

Despite that good news, Briefing.com analyst Patrick J O'Hare said "participants keying on signs of possible exhaustion" after the string of record-setting days.

However, recent history shows traders are "inclined to look at weakness as a buying opportunity," he said.

Among individual shares, cloud computing firm Salesforce.com, which will join the Dow index on Monday in place of global oil giant Exxon Mobil, leapt 20.2 percent.

Meanwhile, Apple, which is poised to make a four-to-one stock split after its value soared to $2 trillion, is up 1.0 percent.