Markets
Nia Warfield, Luke Kawa

S&P 500 dips as Fed Chair warns on inflation risks

The S&P 500 fell into the red and never made it back to positive territory after Fed Chair Jay Powell warned of more tariff-induced pressure on inflation to come, causing traders to price in lower odds of interest rate cuts. The benchmark US stock index fell 0.1%, the Nasdaq 100 gained 0.2%, and the Russell 2000 slumped 0.5%.

Materials, energy, and real estate were the worst-performing S&P 500 sector ETFs, while utilities, communications services, and tech were the lone sectors to gain on the day.

Humana rose more than 12% after the health insurance company topped Q2 estimates and raised its full-year outlook. Big decliners included mining giant Freeport-McMoran, which tumbled after the Trump administration announced tariffs on imports of processed copper products, but excluded ore and cathodes.

Elsewhere…

Wingstop shares soared 26% after the chicken chain posted better-than-expected Q2 sales and profit — and opened a record 129 net new stores last quarter.

Peloton shares climbed 18% after UBS slapped a “buy” rating on the stock, citing recent subscription price hikes and early signs that user declines may be leveling off.

Marvell Technology rose 7% after Morgan Stanley raised its price target to $80 from $73 while keeping its “equal weight” rating.

Electronic Arts shares jumped 5.7% after Wedbush Securities said in a note that the Madden NFL parent company was set to outpace the rest of the video game market through its fiscal year 2027.

Shares of Nvidia and Broadcom rose 2% and 1.7%, respectively, after a Morgan Stanley analyst raised his price targets on the chipmakers to $200 from $170 for Nvidia and to $338 from $270 for Broadcom.

VF shares rallied 2.7% after the parent of Vans, Timberland, and The North Face reported a smaller-than-expected Q1 loss and showed early signs of a potential turnaround.

Avis shares tanked 15% following a disappointing second-quarter earnings report. (Fun fact: renting a car costs about 40% more than it did a decade ago).

Adidas shares sank 11% after the shoemaker posted lower-than-expected sales in the second quarter and warned of the impacts of US tariffs for the second half of the year.

Mondelez fell 6.6% after the Oreo parent beat Q2 expectations but stuck with a muted full-year outlook, as it faces historically high cocoa prices and slow demand in North America.

SoFi Technologies dropped 2.3% after it announced plans to sell $1.5 billion of stock, giving up gains after the company topped Q2 earnings expectations and hiked its full-year revenue guidance on Tuesday.

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markets
Rani Molla

SpaceX reportedly files confidentially for IPO

SpaceX confidentially filed its draft IPO paperwork with the Securities and Exchange Commission, Bloomberg reports, citing people familiar with the matter, the next step toward what is expected to be a blockbuster summer listing.

Elon Musk’s satellite and rocket company could raise around $75 billion in an IPO that would value it at more than $1.75 trillion — both records — though the exact amounts won’t be settled until it goes public, likely in June.

Another notable thing about this IPO: the portion of shares committed to individual investors is expected to be much higher than in traditional IPOs — per Reuters, up to 30% versus the typical 10% — a move that could broaden retail participation in one of the most anticipated public offerings ever.

SpaceX Has Filed Confidentially for IPO Ahead of AI Rivals

Elon Musk’s SpaceX to Combine with xAI Ahead of Mega IPO

Another notable thing about this IPO: the portion of shares committed to individual investors is expected to be much higher than in traditional IPOs — per Reuters, up to 30% versus the typical 10% — a move that could broaden retail participation in one of the most anticipated public offerings ever.

markets
Matt Phillips

Energy stocks tumble after massive March

Energy and chemical stocks tumbled early Wednesday on growing expectations that the US participation in the Iran war is nearing an end, and West Texas Intermediate crude oil futures slipped back below $100 a barrel.

LyondellBasell, APA Corporation, Dow, Inc., CF Industries, and Marathon Petroleum — the S&P 500’s top 5 gainers last month — all sank.

Natural gas drillers EOG Resources, Devon Energy, Coterra Energy, and Diamondback Energy dropped, as did integrated oil giants Exxon and Chevron. Fuel refiners and marketers such as Phillips 66 and Valero also fell.

Don’t shed too many tears for these energy giants; the S&P 500 energy sector rose 10% in March and 37% in Q1 2026.

The Energy Select Sector SPDR Fund is coming off its second-best quarter on record relative to the SPDR S&P 500 ETF, based on data going back to 1999.

Max Knoblauch

Nio, Li Auto rise as Q1 delivery totals beat internal guidance

China’s EV startup trio — Nio, Li Auto, and XPeng — are all climbing on Wednesday, following the release of March and first-quarter delivery totals.

Nio delivered 83,465 vehicles in the three months that ended in March, up 99% from the same quarter a year ago and slightly beating the upper end of its guidance. Li Auto delivered 95,142 vehicles in the period, up 2.5% and ahead of its guidance range. The figure was bolstered by 12% growth in March deliveries.

XPeng, on the other hand, saw Q1 deliveries drop 33% year over year to 62,682 vehicles — the company’s first quarterly drop since 2023. Shares are still up as of 10 a.m. ET on Wednesday, as the automaker’s March deliveries were up 80% from February’s total.

BYD is down more than 2% on Wednesday, as the automaker posted its seventh consecutive month of sales declines. First-quarter sales fell 30% year over year, Reuters reported.

markets
Matt Phillips

Data center trade reboots amid Iran relief rally

Memory, networking, chipmaking machinery, semiconductor, and rack-building stocks were all up early Wednesday, in a broad-based reboot of the data center trade on growing optimism about America’s potential exit from the Iran war.

Companies that make all the core components of data center were on the move early. Memory plays Micron, Sandisk, Western Digital, and Seagate Technology Holdings all opened near the top of the S&P 500’s leaders, as they shook off last week’s jitters related to a Google Research announcement about an AI algorithm that might cut demand for memory.

Fiber-optic and networking shares like Ciena Corp., Arista Networks, Corning, Coherent, Amphenol, and Lumentum — popular recent data center plays — also rose. OG data center trades like chip companies Nvidia, Intel, and Advanced Micro Devices gained. And the companies that make the machines that make the chips, like Lam Research and KLA Corp, are also catching a bid.

Even the more hard-hat elements of the AI boom were up, with Comfort Systems USA, Eaton Corp, Carrier, and Quanta Services rising. Server rack builders Dell and HP Enterprise also increased.

Clearly, there’s a big element of relief rally at play in the early bounce, building on Monday’s advance, which saw the S&P 500 post its biggest one-day gain since May.

markets
Luke Kawa

Intel soars after buying back stake in Irish manufacturing facility

Intel is spending $14.2 billion to take back full ownership of a manufacturing facility in Ireland, the company announced on Wednesday.

“The agreement reflects Intel’s continued business momentum underpinned by the growing and essential role CPUs play in the era of AI,” according to the company’s press release.

Shares are soaring, up around 6% in early trading.

Investors appear to be viewing this measure as a concrete sign that Intel’s turnaround plan is entering a new phase — growth mode, powered by AI — after years of sluggish sales forced a focus on cost controls.

The chipmaker had previously sold a 49% stake in this fab for $11.2 billion to Apollo Global Management in order to raise cash for other investment opportunities, including its 18A manufacturing process in the US.

Intel intends to fund the transaction through available cash and an additional $6.5 billion in debt.

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