Updated 2 min read
US stocks rose on Wednesday after the Federal Reserve ushered in the first US interest rate cut of 2025. Fed officials voted in favor of a 25 basis point reduction, a move highly anticipated by the market, following the central bank’s two day policy meeting.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average (^DJI) moved up more than 1%, while the S&P 500 (^GSPC) flipped into green territory. Meanwhile, the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite (^IXIC) trimmed session losses. The major US indexes had ended Tuesday little changed to stay within reach of record highs.
In addition to the rate cut, Fed policy makers also signaled two more rate cuts this year. A labor market slowdown was expected to convince Fed officials to pivot toward more rate cuts, despite an uptick in inflation. Traders priced in a 96% chance of a 25 basis point cut and a 4% chance of a bigger move when the decision arrived at 2:00 p.m. ET.
The Fed’s decision comes amid growing concerns over the central bank’s independence. While President Trump has lambasted Powell, he may soon be able to exert more direct influence over policymakers. The Senate confirmed his nominee to the Fed on Monday, enabling Stephen Miran to vote this week. At the same time, Lisa Cook took part in the policy decision after an appeals court rebuffed Trump’s attempt to oust the Fed governor.
On the corporate front, China has told its biggest tech companies including Alibaba not to buy the Nvidia (NVDA) AI chip tailor-made for the country, effectively banning tens of thousands of orders, the Financial Times reported. Nvidia shares dropped more than 2%.
General Mills (GIS) quarterly sales topped estimates, but shares slipped after the Cheerios maker warned of a challenging consumer backdrop. Also on tap, Cracker Barrel (CBRL) results are in focus following controversy over its now-abandoned logo change.
LIVE 24 updates
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Stocks trim gains
The bullish reaction in stocks immediately following the Fed decision faded with just 15 minutes to go before Fed Chair Jerome Powell speaks at 2:30 p.m. ET presser on Wednesday.
The S&P 500 (GSPC), which briefly turned green, fell 0.2%, while the Nasdaq Composite (IXIC) deepened losses, dropping 0.7%.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average (^DJI), which had surged as much as 1%, trimmed gains to gain 0.7%.
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S&P 500 turns positive
The S&P 500 (^GSPC) turned positive after the Federal Reserve cut the fed fund rate by 25 basis points, to a new range of 4-4.25% and signaled two more rate cuts this year.
The decision was not unanimous. Fed governor Stephen Miran preferred to cut by 50 basis points instead of 25.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average (^DJI) moved up more than 1%, while the Nasdaq Composite (^IXIC) trimmed session losses, but still stayed in red territory.
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Federal Reserve cuts rates by 25 basis points
The Federal Reserve cut the fed funds rate by 25 basis points on Wednesday, in a move highly anticipated by the markets.
The decision comes after a two-day policy meeting in which policymakers had to consider signs of a deteriorating labor market and inflation, which has remained above the central bank’s 2% target.
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Stock and crypto bulls are watching for rate cuts to drive the market higher
Yahoo Finance’s Brian Sozzi writes:
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Cracker Barrel to report latest earnings as it aims to move past logo backlash
Cracker Barrel (CBRL) is set to report its quarterly results Wednesday after market close.
The stock has faced a turbulent month as investors responded to backlash against its new logo and redesigns.
The company has since reverted to its previous logo and paused restaurant redesigns. Now, investors are eager to hear more about how its the logo-related ‘hubbub’ drove near-term traffic to the country restaurant.
Based on Bloomberg consensus estimates, Wall Street expects Cracker Barrel’s fourth quarter revenue for its 2025 fiscal year to fall 4% from a year ago to roughly $855 million and adjusted earnings per share to fall 22% to $0.76 from $0.98. Its fourth quarter ended August 1, prior to the unveiling of the company’s new logo on Aug 19.
Despite the recent noise, same-store sales for the quarter are expected to rise 3.49% compared to the 0.45% decline it saw in the same time period last year.
For the full year, Cracker Barrel previously said it expected fiscal 2025 revenue to come in between $3.45 billion and $3.5 billion.
Investors are also eyeing the company’s long-term outlook. Cracker Barrel previously said it projects 2027 sales between $3.8 billion and $3.9 billion.
At the time of that multiyear guidance, the company said it was in the “process of testing [restaurant] remodel prototypes” and expected “to complete 25 to 30 remodels in fiscal 2025.”
But those remodels have been suspended, and Cracker Barrel has said it will instead invest in its existing restaurants “to make sure that they are in good shape” and meet customers’ expectations.
The stock is down roughly 4% year-to-date, compared to the S&P 500’s (^GSPC) 12% gain.
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Reddit pares losses on news of talks for AI content deal with Google
Reddit stock pared losses from earlier in the trading session after Bloomberg reported that the social media platform is in talks with Google for its next content-sharing agreement.
Reddit shares sank as much as 6.5% Wednesday but were down a more modest 3% in afternoon trading following the Bloomberg report.
The outlet said Reddit is in talks with the tech giant to more deeply integrate its data into Google’s AI products following a $60 billion content sharing deal at the start of 2024. Bloomberg reported that Reddit is also talking with ChatGPT-maker OpenAI and Google to be paid more as its role in the companies’ AI products becomes more important.
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Opendoor stock jumps, eyes 225% gain in past month
Opendoor’s (OPEN) stock moved up nearly 16% in morning trading to trade above $10, for a gain of nearly 225% over the past month.
Shares in the operator of the iBuyer platform, which uses algorithms to flip houses, have risen since it hired Shopify’s COO Kaz Nejatian as its new CEO.
The real estate platform provider has just marked its first quarter of positive adjusted earnings in Q2. Its share price has gained more than 760% in the past six months, leading some to consider it a meme stock.
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HIMS stock extends decline in wake of FDA warning letter
Hims & Hers Health (HIMS) stock fell nearly 3% on Wednesday morning, after dropping nearly 6% in the previous trading session.
The declines come after the US Food and Drug Administration sent the telehealth platform provider a warning letter last week. The FDA said Hims & Hers made false or misleading claims in its online marketing of its compounded semaglutide products.
HIMS stock has had a volatile year so far, but the San Francisco company’s shares are up roughly 104% in 2025. In June, the stock suffered after Danish pharmaceutical giant Novo Nordisk (NVO) ended its partnership with Hims & Hers, accusing it of “deceptive” marketing.
HIMS is one of the top 10 most-shorted stocks in the US, according to S&P Global Market Intelligence Data, with some 30% of shares currently sold short.
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Oracle stock drops, snapping a blistering rally for now
Oracle shares fell more than 2% early on Wednesday, halting its recent rally for now.
The AI cloud provider’s stock has been on a tear after its latest quarterly financial report showed a massive backlog of contracts in its cloud business, reportedly led by OpenAI.
Adding to that winning streak was Oracle’s reported role in a preliminary US-China deal for TikTok to continue operations in the US ahead of a ban. The deal is expected to be finalized on Friday during a call between Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping.
Oracle’s upswing added $193 billion to the software giant’s market cap. But that gain has sparked bubble fears, given the stock is now more expensive than eight of the nine most valuable companies in the S&P 500 (^GSPC).
Plus, concerns have persisted over Oracle’s reliance on OpenAI and the ChatGPT maker’s ability to fund its reported $300 billion deal with the software giant.
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Fed set to make its first rate cut of 2025
Yahoo Finance’s Jennifer Schonberger reports:
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Nvidia stock extends decline amid AI chip ban in China
Nvidia (NVDA) shares fell 2% after the market open on Wednesday, as investors weighed a Financial Times report that Chinese authorities told leading tech companies in the country not to use Nvidia’s AI chips.
“The decision underscores Beijing’s push to cut reliance on US semiconductors amid intensifying AI competition with the US and the promotion of domestic chip and tool utilization,” Hedgeye Risk Management analyst Felix Wang wrote in a note after the news.
China’s internet regulator told companies to halt orders of the RTX Pro 6000D, which Nvidia custom-made for customers in the country.
Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang has repeatedly stressed the importance of the Chinese AI market, what he sees as a rapidly growing $50 billion market opportunity.
The exec lobbied the Trump administration to lift a US ban on exports of its lower-power H20 chips to China this summer in an unprecedented deal that involved Nvidia sharing its revenue from those sales with the government. Huang said in August that Nvidia is working on a less powerful version of its Blackwell chips for China.
But Huang told reporters during a briefing in London on Wednesday: “I think that we could only be in service of a market if the country wants us to be.”
“I’m disappointed with what I see, but they have larger agendas to work out, you know, between China and the United States, and I’m understanding of that, and we’re patient about it,” he added.
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Dow rises, S&P 500 and Nasdaq stall at the open
US stocks opened mostly steady on Wednesday as investors awaited the Federal Reserve’s decision on interest rates this afternoon — which is expected to bring the central bank’s first rate cut of 2025.
The S&P 500 (^GSPC) rose less than 0.1%, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite (^IXIC) nudged nearly 0.1% lower. The moves come after the indexes eased from record highs on Tuesday.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average (^DJI) moved up nearly 0.4%.
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Lyft jumps 15% on Waymo partnership
Lyft (LYFT) shares jumped as much as 30% in premarket trading Wednesday after the ride hail company and Uber (UBER) rival said it’s partnering with Alphabet-owned (GOOG, GOOGL) robotaxi firm Waymo to offer self-driving cabs in Nashville in 2026.
“We’re delighted to partner with Lyft and launch in Nashville next year, as we continue to scale our Waymo ride-hailing service to more people in more places,” Waymo co-CEO Tekedra Mawakana said in a statement Wednesday.
Waymo is in expansion mode: the company on Tuesday said it obtained a permit to test its driverless taxis at the San Francisco International Airport, and its cabs are already available in the city of San Francisco, Phoenix, Los Angeles, Austin, and Atlanta.
Uber shares fell 4% on news of the Waymo-Lyft partnership. Lyft shares pared initial gains, up 15% shortly before the market open.
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Good morning. Here’s what’s happening today.
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Retail spending is starting to look more and more like the labor market
Yahoo Finance’s Hamza Shaban takes a hard look at the state of American consumer spending in today’s takeaway from Morning Brief.
The question of who is doing the spending powering the US economy has taken on greater importance as talk of a slowdown grows, he notes:
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Premarket trending tickers: Workday, WBD and Alibaba
Workday (WDAY) stock rose 7% before the bell on Wednesday after announcing it plans to acquire Swedish AI company Sana in a deal worth around $1.1B. Activist investor Elliott Management said on Tuesday it has built a stake of more than $2 billion in Workday while voicing support for the company’s leadership.
Warner Bros. Discovery (WBD) stock fell 2% in premarket trading on Wednesday. This follows the news last week from the Wall Street Journal that Paramount Skydance (PSKY) is preparing a majority-cash bid for the media conglomerate.
Alibaba’s (BABA) stock rose on Wednesday before the bell after news broke that it had secured a high-profile customer in China Unicom (0762.HK) for its AI chips.
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China bans tech companies from buying Nvidia’s AI chips
Nvidia’s (NVDA) stock came under pressure before the bell, thanks to a Financial Times report that Beijing has told Chinese tech giants not to use its AI chips.
Shares of the AI leader slid 1.5% in the wake of the report, which cited three unidentified source.
The FT reports:
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StubHub raises about $800 million in IPO, starts trading today
StubHub (STUB) is set to begin trading on the NYSE on Wednesday after the ticket reseller’s IPO gave it a valuation of $8.6 billion.
It sold 34.04 million shares priced within the anticipated range at $23.50 piece, setting the stage for its long-awaited stock market debut.
Reuters reports:
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Investors haven’t been this bullish on stocks since February
Bank of America’s latest Global Fund Manager Survey suggested that Wall Street fund managers are piling back into stocks, even as the economic backdrop turns shakier.
Yahoo Finance’s Allie Canal reports:
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China tech stocks jump to 4-year high amid AI boom
A rapid rally in Chinese tech stocks accelerated on Wednesday as renewed bets on artificial intelligence sent the Hang Seng Tech Index (HSTECH.HK) to its highest level in nearly four years.
The index, which tracks Hong Kong’s tech giants, advanced 4.3% to reach its highest close since November 2021. Baidu (BIDU, 9888.HK) led the gains, up 16%, as shares of Alibaba (BABA, 9988.HK), SMIC (0981.HK), and JD.com (JD, 9618.HK) also jumped.
Bloomberg reports:
