The S&P 500 reached a milestone level on Wednesday, hitting 7,000 for the first time, before pulling back ahead of the Federal Reserve’s interest rate decision and earnings reports from major tech companies.
The Dow Jones Industrials held onto gains of 26.06 points to move into the afternoon at 49,029.47
The much-broader index eased 4.14 points to 6,974.46.
The NASDAQ brushed aside 2.24 points to 23,914.86.
The broader market’s earlier rise was bolstered by gains in chip stocks following upbeat earnings results.
Seagate Technology shares jumped more than 18% after the storage infrastructure company’s second-quarter earnings and revenue topped analyst expectations, with CEO Dave Mosley citing strong demand for artificial intelligence data storage.
Additionally, semiconductor equipment giant ASML reported record orders and issued rosy 2026 guidance due to the AI boom.
Beyond those earnings, China has given approval to ByteDance, Alibaba and Tencent to buy Nvidia’s H200 AI chips, Reuters reported Wednesday. Nvidia shares rose 1%. Fellow semiconductor names Micron Technology and Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing saw gains as well.
The rally failed to broaden past chip stocks, however, as the S&P 500 was eventually dragged lower heading into the Fed decision.
The central bank is widely expected to keep its benchmark interest rate steady at a target range of 3.5% to 3.75%, but traders will be seeking hints on longer-term changes to monetary policy. Fed funds futures trading suggests two quarter percentage point cuts by the end of 2026,
Investors are monitoring the performance of the U.S. dollar after the currency posted its worst day since last April on Tuesday with a more than 1% drop. Its one-year fall now stands at more than 10%.
Tuesday’s move came on the heels of President Donald Trump failing to say that the currency had gone too far in its fall, instead viewing it as “doing great.” The dollar rebounded slightly Wednesday.
Prices for the 10-year Treasury slid a bit, raising yields to 4.26% from Tuesday’s 4.23%. Treasury prices and yields move in opposite directions.
Oil prices added 36 cents to $62.75 U.S. a barrel.
Gold prices hiked $207.40 to $5,290.
