Wall Street inched higher on Wednesday morning, stretching the technology rally into a third day as investors positioned for the Federal Reserve’s 2 p.m. interest rate decision and a pair of mega-cap earnings reports after the closing bell.
The S&P 500 hovered near 7,728, up less than 0.1% in early trading, while the Dow Jones Industrial Average added about 66 points to trade near 52,444 and the Nasdaq composite held near 26,482. The Nasdaq is up about 2% this week, rebounding from a bruising first half of October after artificial intelligence company Anthropic filed to go public on Monday.
Chip stocks lead again
Memory-chip makers did the heavy lifting after South Korea’s SK Hynix posted blowout quarterly results and said capacity for some of its most sought-after products is essentially sold out for the next three years. SK Hynix’s U.S.-listed shares jumped 7.5% in premarket trading, Micron Technology rose about 4%, Sandisk gained 4.1% and Western Digital added 1.4%. The broader chip sector followed, with Nvidia up about 1% and AMD and Marvell Technology each up 1.5%.
Alphabet rose more than 1% in premarket trading on a report that OpenAI plans to buy Google’s artificial intelligence chips. Alphabet and Microsoft both report after Wednesday’s close, with investors expecting accelerating cloud growth and parsing capital-spending plans for evidence that enormous AI investments are producing returns. Amazon and Intel report later in the week.
The morning’s economic readout
The Census Bureau’s advance report showed the U.S. goods trade deficit widening to $134.9 billion in September from $132.1 billion in August, as imports rose $8.1 billion to $344.1 billion and exports climbed $5.3 billion to $209.2 billion. Businesses also kept stocking shelves: wholesale inventories rose 0.6% from August and retail inventories rose 0.3%, each up solidly from a year earlier.
More data arrives at 10 a.m., when the government releases third-quarter housing vacancy figures and the Labor Department publishes metropolitan-area employment and business employment dynamics reports.
Movers beyond tech
Data-center infrastructure provider Vertiv soared 17% after raising its full-year forecasts and topping quarterly expectations. Among the decliners, Robinhood fell 6.5% after missing third-quarter profit estimates and Visa slipped 1.6% following its quarterly report.
Around the markets
Oil prices climbed, with U.S. benchmark crude up about 2% near $102 a barrel and Brent near $115.50, as the Middle East conflict kept energy markets on edge. Gold eased about $13 to roughly $4,062 an ounce. The 10-year Treasury yield hovered just below 5%, and the euro traded near $1.11. Japan’s Nikkei rose 1.7% and South Korean shares surged on the chip rally, while European indexes traded lower at midday ahead of the Fed and the European Central Bank’s own decision this week.
What to watch
The Fed announces its decision at 2 p.m., followed by Chairman Kevin Warsh’s press conference at 2:30. Markets widely expect the benchmark rate to stay at 3.75% to 4% after last month’s increase, but with inflation still elevated, traders are pricing at least three more quarter-point hikes by late 2027 – making Warsh’s tone the main event for anyone with a mortgage, a car loan or a business line of credit. Thursday brings the September PCE price index, the Fed’s preferred inflation gauge, and the first estimate of third-quarter GDP, expected to show 3.2% growth.
JBizNews Desk | Wall Street
© JBizNews.com. All rights reserved. Unauthorized reproduction or redistribution is strictly prohibited.
