Stock market today: Dow, S&P 500, Nasdaq waver as Trump says ‘not planning’ to fire Powell

Large-cap tech stocks will likely soon be forced to meet the moment, Yahoo Finance’s Brian Sozzi reports.

Sozzi writes:

Read the full story here.

The bond market remains on edge after multiple outlets reported that President Trump was seriously considering firing Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell, Yahoo Finance’s Allie Canal reports — only for the president to downplay the possibility as stocks fell and Treasury yields jumped.

Canal writes:

Read the full story here.

Bitcoin (BTC-USD) and crypto stocks bounced back Wednesday as optimism rose over the fate of three cryptocurrency bills that were snagged in the House of Representatives Tuesday.

On Wednesday, Republican representative and Financial Services Committee Chairman French Hill told CNBC that the House has the necessary votes to pass the three crypto bills: the CLARITY Act, a market framework bill; the GENIUS Act, tied to stablecoin regulation; and the Anti-CBDC Surveillance State Act, which bans the Federal Reserve from issuing a central bank digital currency directly to individuals.

Shares of stablecoin issuer Circle (CRCL) rose nearly 14%, while crypto exchange Coinbase (COIN) saw its stock rise 2.6%. Robinhood (HOOD) rose 3.5%, and Strategy (MSTR) climbed 2.6%.

Bitcoin rose 1.4% to nearly $119,000 after hitting a high above $120,000 earlier in the week.

Hill’s comments came after President Trump said on Truth Social late Tuesday that the GENIUS Act has the support necessary for passage.

“I am in the Oval Office with 11 of the 12 Congressmen/women necessary to pass the GENIUS Act and, after a short discussion, they have all agreed to vote tomorrow morning in favor of the Rule,” Trump wrote late Tuesday on Truth Social.

Just moments after reporting from multiple outlets suggested President Trump was moving closer to firing Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell, Trump said he’s “not talking about” firing Powell.

Speaking to reporters in the Oval Office, Trump was asked about whether he’d try to remove Powell and while he reiterated his view Powell is not doing a good job and should be lowering rates, he’s not considering firing the Fed chair, noting that his term is up in May.

In response, stocks moved off session lows and were trading little-changed.

The drumbeat that President Trump will fire Fed Chair Jerome Powell got louder Wednesday, with reporting from CBS News, Bloomberg, CNBC, and The New York Times all adding to the sense that Trump is getting closer to making the unprecedented move.

Stocks were lower following the news, but the biggest move in markets was coming from the foreign exchange market, where the dollar was getting crushed against other major currencies.

The dollar quickly fell as much as 1% against the Japanese yen, lost about 0.7% against the euro, and fell about 0.5% against the British pound.

The dollar index fell about 0.7%.

Trump has for some time complained about Powell’s lack of aggressive rate cuts this year, saying the Fed chair is “too late,” among other barbs.

And while the spat between Trump and Powell — who was named Fed chair by Trump during his first term in office — has now spanned multiple administrations, some on Wall Street also see Trump’s desire to cut Powell as coming back to aiding his key economic agenda: tariffs.

“There is method to President Donald Trump’s madness regarding Fed Chair Jerome Powell,” Ed Yardeni of Yardeni Research wrote in a note to clients on July 1.

“Trump has been hammering Powell almost daily recently because doing so is very effectively hammering the foreign-exchange value of the dollar. Trump wants a weaker dollar to boost US exports and depress US imports. He has said that he favored a weaker dollar many times in the past, but now he has found a way to achieve that: by beating up on Powell.”

As for whether Trump will be able to fire Powell, the Supreme Court in May issued a ruling that walled off the Federal Reserve from other independent agencies that had their leaders removed by Trump.

President Trump asked Republican members of the House of Representatives if he should fire Fed Chair Jerome Powell in the Oval Office on Tuesday night, CBS News reported Wednesday, citing unnamed sources. The New York Times reported that Trump had showed off a draft of a letter firing Powell during the meeting.

The Republican representatives voiced approval for such a move, CBS reported.

Shortly after the CBS report, Bloomberg reported that Trump is likely to fire Powell soon, citing a White House official.

All three major indexes fell after the news to touch lows for the day. The S&P 500 (^GSPC) fell 0.45%, while the Dow Jones Industrial Average (^DJI) fell 0.3%. The Nasdaq Composite (^IXIC) dropped nearly 0.6%.

The US Dollar DXY (DX-Y.NYB) fell roughly 0.9% following the news.

Meanwhile, bets on Fed rate cuts rose from earlier in the day after weaker-than-expected inflation data out earlier Wednesday morning. As of late Wednesday morning, traders saw a more than 70% chance of the Fed cutting rates in September, versus roughly 56% earlier in the day, according to CME Group.

Investor speculation that the Fed will hold rates steady not just this month but also in September is growing.

According to the CME Group, traders are pricing in a 44% chance that the Fed will not cut rates in September, up from 30% last week.

Investors see a more than 54% probability of a 25 basis point cut in September, down from roughly 66% last week. And traders are betting that there’s a slim 1.4% chance that the central bank will cut rates by 50 basis points, down from 4.2% last week.

Johnson & Johnson (JNJ) stock climbed nearly 5% Wednesday after the drugmaker’s latest earnings results topped expectations and the company raised its financial outlook for the year.

The pharma giant reported revenues of $23.7 billion, higher than the $22.8 billion expected by Wall Street analysts. Earnings per share came in at $2.77, compared to the $2.66 projected, Yahoo Finance’s Anjalee Khemlani reports.

The company also raised its revenue guidance for the year to a range between $93.2 billion and $93.6 billion, up from its prior range of $91 billion to $91.8 billion. J&J lifted full-year earnings per share guidance by $0.25 to $10.85.

Khemlani writes:

Read more about J&J’s latest earnings results here.

US stocks inched higher Wednesday morning as investors digested another round of corporate earnings results and a wholesale inflation checkup.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average (^DJI) rose about 0.3% after shedding over 400 points on Tuesday, while the S&P 500 (^GSPC) was up nearly 0.2%. The tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite (^IXIC) was just above the flat line after notching a fresh record Tuesday as AI chipmaker Nvidia (NVDA) hit a new high.

Shares of Johnson & Johnson (JNJ), Bank of America (BAC), and Goldman Sachs (GS) rose after reporting solid earnings results, while Morgan Stanley (MS) stock fell despite the bank’s own earnings report topping Wall Street’s projections.

Here’s a look a the top trending tickers in premarket trading as earnings season kicks off:

Read more live coverage of earnings season here.

Wholesale prices rose less than expected in June.

Wednesday’s report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics showed that its producer price index (PPI) — which tracks the price changes companies see — rose 2.3% from the year prior, below the 2.7% seen in May and lower than the 2.5% increase economists had projected. On a monthly basis, prices were flat. Economists had expected 0.2% increase.

Excluding food and energy, “core” prices rose 2.6% year over year, below the 3.2% gain seen in May. Economists had expected an increase of 2.7%. Meanwhile, month-over-month core prices were flat below the 0.2% increase economists had expected and the 0.3% gain seen last month.

The report follows Tuesday’s Consumer Price Index (CPI) report which showed core price increases accelerated to 2.9% in June.

Shares of Goldman Sachs (GS), JPMorgan Chase (JPM), and Citigroup (C) were moving higher in premarket trading on Wednesday after the Wall Street firms reported higher dealmaking and trading revenue this week to kick off earnings season.

Yahoo Finance’s David Hollerith reports:

Read more here.

Yahoo Finance’s Ben Werschkul reports:

Read more here.

ASML (ASML, ASML.AS) shares slumped almost 8% in premarket trading after the chip industry linchpin said it may not achieve growth in 2026.

The warning came even as the world’s biggest supplier of chipmaking gear’s second quarter bookings topped Wall Street estimates on Wednesday.

Reuters reported:

Read more here.

Gold (GC=F) rose overnight Tuesday as a wave of tariff updates did little to appease flighty investors looking for safe investments. With multiple rocky trade deals on the table, markets have pushed back into the valuable metal which has risen by over 25% this year so far.

Bloomberg reports:

Read more here.

President Trump is in the process of signing an executive order that will allow retirement plan providers to invest more heavily in private assets, according to those familiar with the matter. The order should take place within the next few days and will open up retirement plans to riskier investments.

Reuters reports:

Read more here.