US stocks have closed mixed, cooling off after Wednesday’s torrid rally in the wake of the Federal Reserve’s decision to maintain an aggressive stimulus program.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 40.39 (0.26 per cent) to 15,636.55 on Thursday.

The broad-based S&P 500 dipped 3.18 (0.18 per cent) to 1,722.34. Both the Dow and the S&P 500 reached record highs on Wednesday after the Fed announcement.

The tech-rich Nasdaq Composite Index rose 5.74 (0.15 per cent) to 3,789.38.

“You’ve got to expect a little bit of a pull-back” after Wednesday’s “very explosive” rally, said Peter Cardillo of Rockwell Global Capital. “And it’s not that much of a pullback.”

Dow component JPMorgan Chase fell 1.2 per cent after fines of $US9.20 million ($A973.91 million) were announced against it for securities and governance failures relating to the London whale trading debacle.

Another Dow component, Walt Disney Co, dipped 2.1 per cent after Morgan Stanley downgraded the company to “equal weight,” arguing that gains in the company’s parks and other businesses are already reflected in the firm’s valuation.

Disney will likely prosper in 2015 from the Star Wars film, but gains are “already discounted in shares,” Morgan Stanley said.

Pharmacy chain Rite Aid surged 23.5 per cent after returning to profit in its second quarter and boosting its 2013 earnings and revenue forecasts.

Agilent jumped 3.4 per cent after announcing it would spin off its electronic measurements businesses into a new publicly traded company while keeping its life sciences, diagnostics and applied markets divisions under the Agilent name.

Online coupon company Groupon surged 9.0 per cent after Stifel Nicolaus upgraded the equity to “buy.” The Stifel note cited Groupon as a leader in mobile commerce, according to Barrons.com.

Bond prices fell. The yield on the 10-year Treasury rose to 2.75 per cent from 2.71 per cent on Wednesday, while the 30-year increased to 3.81 per cent from 3.75 per cent. Prices and yields move inversely.