Stocks are higher following Fed rate announcement: Live updates

The Fed kept interest rates unchanged in a range of 4.25%-4.5%, as was widely expected. The central bank also indicated it still expected to reduce rates later this year.

“Uncertainty around the economic outlook has increased,” the Fed said in a statement. “The Committee is attentive to the risks to both sides of its dual mandate.”

— Fred Imbert

Shares of liquified natural gas producer Venture Global rose nearly 2% after the Department of Energy authorized exports from the company’s CP2 LNG terminal in Cameron Parish, Louisiana.

It is the fifth LNG export approval issued by the Energy Department since President Trump took office. Trump has promised to boost U.S. LNG exports as part of his “energy dominance” agenda.

Venture Global has disappointed investors since the company started trading on the New York Stock Exchange on Jan. 24, with its stock falling 56% through Tuesday’s close.

— Spencer Kimball

Check out the companies making headlines in midday trading:

• Autodesk — Shares of the design software maker rose nearly 4% after Starboard Value said it is preparing to wage a proxy fight and intends to nominate a minority slate of director candidates ahead of the company’s upcoming annual meeting.
• MicroStrategy — The company, which is now going by Strategy, rose 5.2%. A day earlier, it said it was issuing more securities to fund cryptocurrency purchases. The company is the largest corporate holder of bitcoin.
• Boeing — The aerospace giant saw its shares pop 6.3% after Chief Financial Officer Brian West gave upbeat commentary at an investor conference, saying Boeing’s cash burn is easing this quarter and its factories are improving. West also brushed off concerns about Trump’s tariffs, but said that any impact depends on how long the uncertainty lasts.

For the full list, read here.

— Pia Singh

The turmoil in artificial intelligence chip stocks including Nvidia this year could continue for some time, but investors should prepare for a strong rebound in the group, according to UBS.

“While investors should brace for elevated tariff-related volatility over the next few weeks as the Trump administration’s trade review approaches, experience from 2018 suggests that a strong correction in tech could be followed by a significant rebound as investors eventually shift their focus back to strong fundamentals,” read a Tuesday note from the chief investment office at UBS Global Wealth Management.

“With elevated market volatility amid near-term tariff uncertainty, we recommend investors continue to take advantage of volatility through structured strategies and by buying the dip in quality AI stocks,” the note continued.

Nvidia shares are in bear market territory, which is typically defined as a more than 20% move down from its peak. The stock was last more than 24% off its 52-week high.

Semiconductor exchange-traded funds such as the iShares Semiconductor ETF (SOXX) and the VanEck Semiconductor ETF (SMH) were down more than 20% each.

— Sarah Min

Traders looking for a reprieve from the selling in the stock market may not get much help from the Federal Reserve on Wednesday.

Wells Fargo strategist Christopher Harvey pointed out in a note to clients that the stock market has had a negative return on Fed decisions days since the start of 2024.

“On average, FOMC day has been a negative for stocks (SPX -0.2%), and slightly worse for small caps (SML: -0.4%) and value (RLV: -0.4%),” Harvey said.

There are also other hints in the stock market and the CBOE Volatility Index that the sell-off is not yet done. That could create some downside risk for a Fed meeting where the central bank faces an uncertain economic picture.

— Jesse Pound

Crypto prices rose with equities ahead of the Fed rate decision Wednesday afternoon, with bitcoin up more than 2% at about $84,000, after bouncing from the $81,000 level a day earlier.

Bitcoin has been stuck below the $90,000 level for much of the month as crypto investors have lost some of the postelection and post-inauguration euphoria that came with the Trump victory. Absent a catalyst, crypto prices have been beholden to global economic concerns, which have intensified in recent weeks on Trump’s tariffs.

“In the near term, BTC’s outlook appears neutral,” said Matt Mena, crypto research strategist at 21Shares. “With the Fed signaling patience on rate cuts, liquidity conditions may remain tight, reinforcing key resistance levels around $85,000 and $90,000 to $95,000 as investors digest recent market moves and assess economic indicators.”

“While a dovish surprise from the Fed could provide a short-term boost, bitcoin may continue consolidating in the absence of clear catalysts,” he added.

— Tanaya Macheel

Boeing shares jumped 6% on Wednesday after finance chief Brian West said the plane maker’s cash burn was easing and factories were improving.

West provided an upbeat outlook for the embattled company, whose shares tumbled more than 32% last year. He also dismissed immediate concerns tied to President Donald Trump’s tariffs, while cautioning impact would likely be determined by how long uncertainty swirls around international trade policy.

“We think we’re off to a good start for the year,” West said at a Bank of America investor conference.

— Alex Harring, Leslie Josephs

An exchange traded fund that tracks Turkish stocks plummeted Wednesday following the arrest of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan political rival Ekrem Imamoglu.

The iShares MSCI Turkey ETF (TUR) was last down 11.4%. That puts in on track for its worst day since Dec. 17, 2021, when it shed 14%.

— Fred Imbert

Williams-Sonoma was under pressure in morning trading Wednesday after delivering tepid guidance for the year ahead.

Shares of the home furnishings retailer dropped 11% after the company said that net revenue could decline in the coming year. Williams-Sonoma guided for an revenue -1.5% to 1.5% for its fiscal year ending January 2026, citing the fact that it will be a 52-week period as opposed to 53 weeks for the prior year.

The company also disclosed that it had over-reported freight expenses in prior years, resulting in a $49 million accounting adjustment.

— Jesse Pound

Stocks started off Wednesday’s trading session in the green.

The S&P 500 gained 0.3%, while the Nasdaq Composite jumped 0.5%. The Dow Jones Industrial Average also rose 85 points, or 0.2%.

— Sean Conlon

UBS added Nvidia to its “Global Top List,” saying the recent fears over the structural demand for artificial intelligence has created an appealing entry point for the stock.

Shares of Nvidia have tumbled more than 17% over the past month and the stock is nearly 25% below its all-time high reached in January.

“Near-term results may be uneven (e.g., new product cycles, supply chain), but we believe the demand for AI compute power remains structurally intact and see NVIDIA as well-positioned,” UBS said in a note to clients Wednesday.

— Yun Li

Check out the companies making headlines before the bell:

• HealthEquity — Shares of the health-focused fintech company plunged 15% following weaker-than-expected fourth-quarter earnings. HealthEquity posted non-GAAP earnings per share of 69 cents on revenue of $311.8 million. Analysts polled by FactSet expected earnings of 72 cents per share on revenue of $305.8 million.
• General Mills — Shares lost more than 3% after General Mills lowered its full-year guidance and reported a top-line miss for the third quarter. The processed food company now sees organic net sales falling between 1.5% to 2% in the full year, versus previous calls for flat sales to a 1% rise. General Mills cited inventory headwinds and softer demand as revenue of $4.84 billion in the third quarter missed a FactSet estimate of $4.96 billion.
• Goldman Sachs — The bank’s shares ticked nearly 1% lower on the heels of an Oppenheimer downgrade to perform from outperform. Oppenheimer cited the lack of a clear rebound in merger and acquisition activity as a key reason for the call.

Read the full list here.

— Hakyung Kim

Nvidia shares rose more than 1% in the premarket Wednesday after the artificial intelligence company unveiled at its annual GTC conference new chips for the building and deploying of AI models.

The chipmaker’s chief executive Jensen Huang announced that its family of chips known as Blackwell Ultra is expected to launch in the second half of 2025, while Vera Rubin, its next-generation graphics processing unit, or GPU, will ship in 2026.

The stock has been having a rough year, with its year-to-date loss of more than 14% being more than three times the S&P 500’s loss during that timeframe. Over the past month, shares have fallen more than 17%, also lagging the broader market.

— Sean Conlon, Kif Leswing

The Federal Reserve is searching for certainty around economic variables such as international trade that have rattled investors in recent weeks, according to Julien Lafargue, chief market strategist at Barclays Private Bank and Wealth Management.

“In the end, the Fed, just like the market, desperately need some visibility on trade, tariffs, and overall policies,” Lafargue said.

The Fed is widely expected to hold interest rates steady during its Wednesday policy announcement. Lafargue said Fed Chair Jerome Powell, who holds a post-announcement press conference, will likely “avoid ifs and buts” and continue showing support for a data-dependent approach.

— Alex Harring

In a Wednesday note, Guggenheim reiterated its buy rating on Roku.

Shares of the streaming platform have shed 9% this year, and have eked out a meager 4% gain over the past 12 months. Guggenheim lowered its price target to $100 per share from $115, although this revised target is still 48% above where the stock closed on Tuesday.

“We maintain our high conviction that Roku will further improve engagement and economics in 2025, and that the business will exit the year at its strongest,” wrote analyst Michael Morris. “Management’s Platform monetization efforts, driven by Chief Financial Officer Dan Jedda and Roku Media President Charlie Collier, are laser focused on growing the financial contribution from the company’s 90mm+ streaming households.”

Morris added that Roku has continued to expand its household streaming penetration, despite competitive pressures. Meanwhile, the company’s advertising inventory continues to grow, alongside its potential advertising monetization going forward.

— Lisa Kailai Han

Financial services giant Morgan Stanley expects to slash around 2,000 employees later this month, Bloomberg News reported Tuesday afternoon, citing people familiar with matter.

The bank anticipates making the cuts across the firm, with an exception for its force of financial advisors, the sources told Bloomberg.

Shares were little changed in after-hours trading following the news report. Morgan Stanley is off about 6% in 2025.

— Darla Mercado

Gilead Sciences and HealthEquity were among the biggest losers in after-hours trading on Tuesday.

• Shares of Gilead Sciences declined about 2.9% on a report in The Wall Street Journal that the Health and Human Services Department is considering plans to significantly cut the federal government’s funding for domestic HIV prevention. That could affect Gilead’s business, as the drugmaker sells medicines for HIV and AIDS.
• HealthEquity’s stock price plunged 13% on the back of the company’s fourth-quarter earnings disappointment. HealthEquity, an administrator of health savings accounts, reported non-GAAP earnings per share of 69 cents on revenue of $311.8 million, while analysts polled by FactSet expected earnings of 72 cents per share on revenue of $305.8 million.

— Pia Singh

Meta Platforms‘ 3.7% decline on Tuesday pulled the Facebook parent’s shares into negative territory year to date, making it the final member of the “Magnificent Seven” to fall into the red for 2025.

Meta is now down 0.5% this year.

It has been a rough few months for last year’s Big Tech high-flyers.

Investors’ anxiety around the U.S. economy and President Donald Trump’s approach to tariff policy has led to flight to safety in the markets, with investors fleeing from the tech sector and flocking toward defensive corners of the market such as health care and energy.

To that end, fellow Magnificent Seven stock Tesla is off 44% in 2025, while artificial intelligence play Nvidia is down 14% during the period.

— Adrian van Hauwermeiren, Darla Mercado