US Stock Market Today: S&P 500, Dow Jones Trade Higher Ahead Of Fed Decision

The main Wall Street indices were trading higher in trade on Wednesday, as optimism around artificial intelligence grew on expectations that Nvidia Corp. could secure progress in China boosted sentiment ahead of an anticipated interest-rate cut by the US Federal Reserve.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average was trading 0.44% up, S&P 500 rose 0.25%, and Nasdaq Composite was up 0.59%.

Driven by surging enthusiasm around artificial intelligence, Nvidia Corp. become the world's first $5 trillion company. The milestone comes as President Donald Trump said he plans to discuss Nvidia's Blackwell processors with China's President Xi Jinping, while CEO Jensen Huang has continued to unveil multiple partnerships and played down concerns of an AI bubble.

“This week’s big tech earnings may be the most important in recent memory since many investors are skeptical about the stock market’s rally,” said David Laut at Kerux Financial to Bloomberg.

The Federal Reserve is expected to deliver a quarter-percentage-point rate cut, and Chair Jerome Powell is likely to offer limited forward guidance given the split among policymakers. According to Fed watchers, there is also a strong possibility that officials will pause the runoff of Treasury securities from the $6.6 trillion balance sheet at this meeting.

While the upward momentum in large-cap technology and growth continues, the diverging breadth and underperformance in small- and mid-cap stocks raise concerns about the sustainability of the recent stock market’s advance, according to Craig Johnson at Piper Sandler as per the news agency. “Investors must remain vigilant within the current uptrend, especially as volatility will likely increase with earnings results and Fed commentary.”

Nvidia, Palantir, Intel and Amazon were trading at an advance, boosted by investor optimism. United Health Group, PayPal, Microsoft and Tesla led the laggards.

Spot gold was up 0.97% to $3,991.20 an ounce. Crude oil prices rose, with the West Texas trading 0.62% higher at $60.52 per barrel.

The Bloomberg Dollar Index was up 0.07% at 98.73, with the British Pound down to $1.32 and the Japanese yen at 152.15 per dollar.

Bitcoin, the largest traded cryptocurrency was down 1.38% at $111,278.78.

As the US market opened, the Dow Jones Industrial Average gained around 0.25%, whereas the S&P 500 jumped 0.22%, and tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite was up 0.62%.