By Joe Woelfel and Mackenzie Tatananni

Stocks traded higher Wednesday as Wall Street focused on the latest tariff developments from President Donald Trump and minutes from the Federal Reserve's June meeting signaled year-end rate cuts, though officials were divided over how many.

These stocks were making moves Wednesday:

Nvidia, the leading maker of AI chips, rose 1.7% to $162.64. Earlier in the session Nvidia reached a $4 trillion market capitalization, becoming the first company ever to reach the milestone. The stock needs to close at or above $163.93 to finish the day at $4 trillion. If shares end the session at or above $160.46, Nvidia would pass the record $3.915 trillion closing market cap reached by Apple in late December.

Apple was down 0.2% after falling lower earlier in the session. The iPhone maker said Tuesday that Chief Operating Officer Jeff Williams plans to retire later this year. Williams, who has been with the company for 27 years, will transition his role this month to Sabih Khan, Apple's senior vice president of operations. In a note Wednesday, Wedbush analysts made the case for Apple to acquire AI search engine Perplexity, arguing that the company won't be able to catch up to rivals otherwise. The firm rates Apple stock at Outperform with a $270 price target.

AES Corp. surged 19% after Bloomberg reported the renewable power company was exploring its options, including a possible sale, amid potential takeover interest from large investment firms. Several major private-equity firms and infrastructure investors have been eyeing AES after the stock lost roughly half its value over the past two years, the outlet said, citing people familiar with the matter. Shares of AES have declined 26% over the past 12 months.

Freeport-McMoRan declined 1.5%. The stock rose 2.5% on Tuesday after copper prices climbed 13% to all-time highs on President Donald Trump's promises to slap 50% tariffs on copper imports.

U.S.-listed shares of Verona Pharma were rising 21% to $104.78 after Merck agreed to buy the lung disease-focused biotech company for roughly $10 billion. Under the terms of the deal, Merck will pay $107 per American depositary share for Verona. Verona makes Ohtuvayre, a treatment for chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. Merck was up 2.9%.

WPP declined 17% in U.S. trading after the advertising giant said it expected its customers to continue cutting back on ad spending. The steep losses came after the company shared a trading update for the first half of 2025, in which it noted a "deterioration in performance" as the second quarter progressed.

Hershey was down 4.8%. The stock fell 3.2% on Tuesday after Wendy's Chief Executive Officer Kirk Tanner was named to run the chocolate company.

Bloom Energy rose 17% to $28.43 after J.P. Morgan analysts upgraded the stock to Overweight from Neutral and raised their target price to $33 from $18. The analysts said a tax credit for fuel cells in Trump's tax-and-spending bill would benefit the energy company.

Mobileye Global was down 7%. Analysts at Goldman Sachs downgraded shares of the maker of sensors and software for driver-assistance features and

self-driving cars to Hold   from Buy. While Mobileye has strong technology, uptake by auto makers has been slower than expected, the firm said. Separately, Mobileye announced that a subsidiary of Intel would be selling 45 million shares of the company in an underwritten secondary public offering. 

Chip maker Intel, meanwhile, fell 1.1%. The stock closed Tuesday with a gain of 7.2% on what was little fresh news. "Nothing new or fundamental, " said Jordan Klein, Mizuho managing director and technology specialist, adding there has been a rotation into semiconductor stocks, which could give Intel a much-needed boost considering its 33% decline over the past 12 months.

Aehr Test Systems, a maker of test systems for sensors and semiconductors, tumbled 15% after saying it was maintaining its "cautious approach" and wasn't "reinstating specific guidance beyond what we have already stated." The company added that it continues to see some timing-related delays in order placements "due to tariff-related uncertainty," particularly in the current first quarter.

Write to Joe Woelfel at joseph.woelfel@barrons.com and Mackenzie Tatananni at mackenzie.tatananni@barrons.com

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July 09, 2025 14:49 ET (18:49 GMT)

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