US stocks drifted lower Wednesday as investors positioned ahead of a packed afternoon: four “Magnificent Seven” earnings reports and a Federal Reserve policy decision.
The Dow fell roughly 252 points, or 0.5%. The S&P 500 slipped 0.2% and the Nasdaq was also down 0.2%, giving back some of Tuesday’s record-high gains.
The pullback comes as Wall Street faces one of its busiest evenings of the year. Alphabet, Meta, Microsoft, and Amazon are all set to report after the closing bell.
AI spending is the central theme. Investors want to see whether the billions being poured into the technology are starting to show up as real revenue.
The mood got a little shaky Tuesday after a report suggested OpenAI recently missed its own internal sales and user targets ahead of its IPO. AI-linked stocks softened on the news.
Wolfe Research’s Chris Senyek noted that “markets were vulnerable to any whiff of bad news” after a strong run off the lows. He expects stocks may consolidate before another move higher.
Not everything was red in early trade. Seagate led a premarket rally in data-storage names, jumping 17% after reporting stronger-than-expected profit and revenue. That offered some reassurance that AI infrastructure demand remains intact.
At 2:30 p.m. ET, Powell will hold a press conference following the Fed’s April policy meeting. No rate change is expected, but markets will be watching closely given this could be his final meeting before his term ends in May.
Fed press conferences tend to spark sharp intraday moves, with markets often settling into a clearer direction in the final 30 minutes of trading.
Treasury yields edged higher ahead of the announcement, with investors also watching the potential nomination of Kevin Warsh as Powell’s successor.
Oil prices jumped more than 3% after the Wall Street Journal reported that President Trump has asked aides to prepare for a sustained US naval blockade of the Strait of Hormuz.
Brent crude crossed $108 per barrel and US WTI crude topped $103 per barrel. Oil has been rising for seven straight trading sessions as Iran tensions persist.
Goldman Sachs separately put out a note seeing gold reaching $5,400 by year-end.
The dollar also ticked higher as geopolitical tensions kept risk appetite in check.
As of Wednesday morning, the Dow stood at 49,009, the S&P 500 at 7,135, and the Nasdaq at 24,644.
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