Dow, S&P 500, Nasdaq waver as Fed holds rates steady, Big Tech earnings loom

The Federal Reserve kept interest rates unchanged on Wednesday, in a 10 to 2 decision.

Governors Chris Waller and Stephen Miran dissented in favor of a 25 basis point cut.

After cutting rates three times at the end of last year, investors had anticipated the Fed would hold rates steady at the conclusion of their two-day policy meeting on Wednesday afternoon.

Attention now shifts to Fed Chair Jerome Powell’s press conference, where markets will look for signals on when the central bank might lower rates again.

The press conference comes amid growing scrutiny of Fed independence, following Powell’s public criticism of the Trump administration earlier this month over a DOJ subpoena related to his testimony on headquarters renovations.

Yahoo Finance’s Jennifer Schonberger writes:

Read the full story here.

Yahoo Finance’s Ines Ferré reports:

Read more here.

The US dollar (DX-Y.NYB) ticked fractionally higher Wednesday after Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent indicated support for a strong dollar and said the US would not intervene in the currency market to boost the Japanese yen (^XDN).

Bessent told CNBC the US “always has a strong dollar policy.”

He said the US is “absolutely not” intervening to support the yen, which sent that currency tumbling Wednesday.

The commentary appeared to be an attempt to quell concerns after Trump said he wasn’t concerned about the recent slide in the US currency.

Stocks pulled back from earlier gains late Wednesday morning as markets awaited the Fed’s policy decision later in the day as well as commentary from chair Jerome Powell on the state of the economy.

The S&P 500 (^GSPC) dipped back below 7,000 after crossing that level for the first time at the market open. The Nasdaq Composite (^IXIC) was up 0.2% as chip stocks surrendered earlier advances, while the Dow (^DJI) remained above the flat line.

Seagate Technology (STX), which makes high-capacity storage drives for data center servers and consumer devices, saw its stock surge nearly 17% on Wednesday after the company reported third quarter revenue and earnings forecasts above Wall Street estimates.

CEO William Mosley told analysts in a post-earnings call Tuesday evening that the rise of agentic AI means “the stage is set for a sustained and meaningful increase in data generated and stored that will support inferencing.” In other words, the executive believes demand from data centers for storage — which accounts for the lion’s share of the company’s revenue — is set to jump.

Wednesday’s gain puts the stock up more than 50% over the past month, and shares have soared nearly 340% over the past year.

Cryptocurrencies broadly rose Wednesday morning ahead of the Federal Reserve’s policy decision on interest rates later in the day.

Bitcoin (BTC-USD) rose 1.9%, ethereum (ETH-USD) added 2.9%, and solana (SOL-USD) put on 1.8%. XRP (XRP-USD) was up 1.4%, while BNB (BNB-USD) nudged 2% higher.

The central bank is widely expected to hold rates steady at today’s meeting, according to futures pricing tracked by CME Group. Investors are betting on odds the Fed will wait until around June to return to easing.

In broader crypto news, the industry is closer to seeing regulation that would further legitimize digital currencies, as the Clarity Act overcame a hurdle in the Senate this week.

Meanwhile, crypto stocks traded mixed Wednesday, with Coinbase (COIN), Robinhood (HOOD), and Strategy (MSTR) trading around the flat line. PayPal sank 1%, while stablecoin issuer Circle (CRCL) rose more than 5%.

Chip stocks jumped on Wednesday as Dutch chipmaking machine designer ASML (ASML) reported record orders ahead of Wall Street’s expectations.

Intel (INTC), which is set to benefit from AI data center demand for CPUs, saw shares jump nearly 9%, while memory chipmaker Micron (MU) surged nearly 4%. AMD (AMD) pared premarket gains to climb about 1%, and custom AI chipmaker Marvell (MRVL) rose over 1%.

ASML CEO Christophe Fouqet said in a call with analysts that the company’s customers — manufacturers like TSMC (TSM), Intel, and others — have started to “really believe in the sustainability of the AI demand.”

ASML shares reversed premarket gains and fell fractionally in morning trading.

Meanwhile, Nvidia (NVDA) stock added nearly 2%. In addition to the ASML news, China reportedly approved imports of 400,000 of the chip giant’s H200 GPUs for purchase by tech giants ByteDance, Alibaba (BABA), and Tencent (0700.HK).

US stocks jumped at the market open ahead of the Federal Reserve’s latest policy decision on interest rates and key earnings reports from Microsoft (MSFT), Meta (META), and Tesla (TSLA).

The S&P 500 moved up 0.3% to open above 7,000 for the first time, on the heels of an all-time closing high. The tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite (^IXIC) climbed about 0.6%, while the Dow Jones Industrial Average (^DJI) hovered above the flat line.

Amazon (AMZN) is making major cuts to it workforce — again.

The e-commerce giant announced plans to eliminate 16,000 roles. Amazon executive Beth Galetti said in a blog post Wednesday morning that the cuts are intended to reduce layers, increase ownership, and reduce bureaucracy.

Last October, Amazon shared plans to cut its workforce by roughly 14,000. Galetti said on Wednesday that this is not part of a larger reduction to its workforce, emphasizing plans to continue to hire and “invest in strategic areas and functions that are critical to our future.”

“Some of you might ask if this is the beginning of a new rhythm — where we announce broad reductions every few months. That’s not our plan,” she wrote.

The cuts come after CEO Andy Jassy said in late 2024 that he wanted the company to “operate like the world’s largest startup.”

Amazon’s stock ticked higher ahead of the market open on Wednesday.

This announcement also comes after the company announced plans to close its Amazon Fresh and Amazon Go stores to focus on delivery services and expanding Whole Foods, which Amazon acquired in 2017.

“While we’ve seen encouraging signals in our Amazon-branded physical grocery stores, we haven’t yet created a truly distinctive customer experience with the right economic model needed for large-scale expansion,” the company said in the release.

According to sources close to the matter, Amazon plans to evaluate each store to see which locations can be converted into Whole Foods stores.

AT&T’s (T) stock rose 4% during premarket hours on Wednesday after forecasting annual profit above analysts’ estimates. AT&T is betting on its wireless and fiber network expansion, which would allow the company to take advantage of the growing 5G and high-speed internet demand.

Reuters reports:

Read more here.

Elevance Health (ELV) stock fell 5% before the bell on Wednesday following a 2026 forecast for profit falling below Wall Street estimates.

​The health insurer said it expects higher medical costs ‌to persist into the year.

Reuters reports:

Read more here.

Seagate (STX) stock rose 9% before the bell on Wednesday after forecasting third quarter revenue and profit above Wall Street estimates. The data storage company said it had benefited from strong demand for its data storage devices.

Softbank (9984.T) Tokyo shares rose more than 3% during premarket hours on Wednesday. Softbank is said to be in talks to invest an additional $30 billion in OpenAI (OPAI.PVT). The Japanese company is one of OpenAI’s biggest investors.

Texas Instruments (TXN) stock rose 7% before the bell on Wednesday after forecasting higher revenue in the quarter ahead.