Tech led stocks lower on Wednesday morning as the broader mood stayed muted ahead of the first Big Tech earnings and the Federal Reserve’s interest rate decision.
The tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite (^IXIC) fell more 0.7%, after a bounce-back rally on Tuesday. The S&P 500 (^GSPC) was down about 0.4%, while the Dow Jones Industrial Average (^DJI) was roughly flat.
The looming Fed policy verdict is providing reason for markets to tread carefully, even though the central bank is expected to stand pat on interest rates.
Investors will listen for answers to two key questions at Fed Chair Jerome Powell’s press conference: How much further will the Fed cut rates and has the central bank changed its stance in light of President Trump’s early tariff moves?
Meanwhile, a surprise rise in bookings for ASML (ASML), a key toolmaker in the AI chip chain, gave another boost to techs starting to recover from a bruising start to the week. Shares of ASML popped 5% in early trading, with peers like Applied Materials (AMAT) also making gains. Nvidia (NVDA), however, didn’t catch a boost, with shares down nearly 5%, as its Tuesday comeback faltered.
The saga deepened with claims by Microsoft-backed (MSFT) OpenAI that DeepSeek used its proprietary models to train its competitor.
The spotlight is now on the guidance in Meta (META) and Microsoft’s quarterly results, due after the bell, for reassurance that Big Tech’s heavy AI spending will pay off in growth. Tesla (TSLA) rounds out Wednesday’s megacap earnings, with Wall Street watching for a new catalyst to jump-start the stock.
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20 mins ago
Nvidia stock crash saw retail investors dump more than $900 million into the name
But retail investors bought the dip. Data from VandaTrack shows retail investors bought more than $562 million of the name on Monday, the largest single day inflow into the stock in VandaTrack’s data. On Tuesday, as the stock rebounded and rose roughly 9%, there was once again a large swath of retail buying totaling nearly $360 million. Across the two days of chaotic market action, retail investors sent more than $920 million into shares of Nvidia.
Wall street strategists largely agreed with retail’s bullish outlook on the name.
“We think this is probably going to end up a buy the dip Nvidia moment,” Fundstrat head of Research Tom Lee said in a video to clients on Monday night.
Bernstein’s Stacy Rasgon told Yahoo Finance’s Seana Smith the DeepSeek driven sell-off was “overblown.” Rasgon added that the new developments don’t spell out “doomsday for AI infrastructure.”
50 mins ago
Starbucks CEO says a turnaround is underway, with no timeline on the table
Starbucks (SBUX) shares are up more than 5% after reporting quarterly results.
Yahoo Finance’s Brian Sozzi reports:
Starbucks CEO Brian Niccol is promising more caffeinated growth but isn’t yet ready to put hard projections around when.
And for now, that continues to be enough for Wall Street.
On its earnings call, the company highlighted improved sequential sales trends in the US as it worked to speed up mobile orders and end upcharging for dairy substitutes, among other changes.
Then Tuesday brought a rebound, with the stock closing 9% higher. But Wednesday’s early action saw the the stock fall nearly 4%. That shows the AI chipmaker isn’t out of the woods yet, as investors await earnings results from key Nvidia customers after the bell in Microsoft (MSFT), Meta (META), and Tesla (TSLA).
Today at 2:45 PM UTC
ASML stock surges on earnings beat, CEO commentary about DeepSeek AI
ASML (ASML) stock rose 6% early Wednesday after the Dutch semiconductor equipment company posted better-than-expected fourth quarter earnings and its CEO dismissed concerns that DeepSeek’s breakthrough would hurt demand for AI chips.
ASML sells highly complex machines to chip manufacturers such as TSMC (TSM), which uses those machines to produce chips for Nvidia (NVDA), Apple (AAPL), and other tech heavyweights.
The Dutch firm on Wednesday reported earnings per share of 6.85 euros ($7.12), ahead of the 6.68 euros expected. Its quarterly revenue of 9.2 billion euros topped the 9 billion euros forecast, according to Bloomberg consensus estimates.
ASML also posted stronger-than-expected order bookings, reflecting strong demand from AI chipmakers for its advanced tools.
Meanwhile, its CEO Christophe Fouquet told CNBC in an interview about the impact of DeepSeek’s new AI models: “We see that as an opportunity for more chips demand.”
Stocks wavered on Wednesday morning with the broader mood muted ahead of the first Big Tech earnings and the Federal Reserve’s rate decision.
The tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite (^IXIC) fell more than 0.3%, after a bounce-back rally on Tuesday. The S&P 500 (^GSPC) was down about 0.2%, while the Dow Jones Industrial Average (^DJI) was just above the flat line.
The looming Fed policy verdict is providing reason for markets to tread carefully, even though the central bank is expected to stand pat on interest rates.
Today at 2:05 PM UTC
Trump Media shares pop nearly 15% amid plan to expand into financial services
Trump Media & Technology Group (DJT) shares rose nearly 15% in premarket trading after the company linked to President Donald Trump announced an expansion into financial services.
The operator of Truth Social will launch a financial services and fintech brand dubbed “Truth.Fi.”
The board approved a $250 million investment of its cash reserves into customized separately managed accounts (SMAs), customized exchange-traded funds (ETFs), as well as bitcoin (BTC-USD) and similar cryptocurrencies or crypto-related securities.
“We began by creating a free-speech social media platform, added an ultra-fast TV streaming service, and now we’re moving into investment products and decentralized finance,” TMTG CEO and chairman Devin Nunes said in the release.
“Developing American First investment vehicles is another step toward our goal of creating a robust ecosystem through which American patriots can protect themselves from the ever-present threat of cancellation, censorship, debanking, and privacy violations committed by Big Tech and woke corporations.”
Today at 1:27 PM UTC
Apple stock gets third downgrade in a week
Oppenheimer has joined its peers at Loop Capital and Jefferies in cutting its rating on shares of Apple (AAPL) in the run-up to the company’s fiscal first quarter results, due out after the bell tomorrow.
OpCo cut its rating on Apple to Perform from Outperform, according to a report from Bloomberg, with the firm citing slowing iPhone sales and a lack of AI innovation, similar cases to those made by Loop and Jefferies last week.
On Monday, Apple was a market leader amid a washout in AI-related plays, most notably Nvidia (NVDA), which lost nearly $600 billion in market value. This was a silver lining of sorts during a period in which the company has been a notable laggard relative to its peers in deploying AI across its product line.
And with Apple set to report results for its holiday quarter on Thursday — its most important quarter of the year for iPhone sales — Wall Street is bracing its clients for a mild disappointment.
