Stock futures were rising Wednesday ahead of the Federal Reserve’s decision on interest rates and a slew of Big Tech earnings.
These stocks were poised to make moves:
Seagate Technology surged 11%, making it the S&P 500’s top performer ahead of the opening bell. The hard-disk-drive maker beat analysts’ estimates for fourth-quarter earnings and revenue, and CEO Dave Mosley touted a surge in demand from artificial-intelligence data centers. Peer Western Digital gained 8.9% and flash-memory supplier Sandisk, which spun off from Western Digital last year, added 7.1% following Seagate’s stellar results.
Memory-chip maker Micron Technology rose 5.1%, getting an additional boost from three other earnings reports.
Texas Instruments jumped 7.3% after the semiconductor company reported fourth-quarter earnings that slightly missed analysts’ estimates but issued a forecast for the first quarter that was better than expected. On a call with analysts, executives said they were seeing a recovery in the industrial market and also noted data center market strength.
ASML advanced 5.5%. The chip-making tool manufacturer reported record sales and orders well above expectations for the fourth quarter, another sign of heavy spending in the chip sector amid the rolling AI boom.
F5 rallied 10% after the multi-cloud software company topped analysts’ earnings and revenue targets for its fiscal first quarter and raised its forecast for the fiscal year.
Qorvo slumped 11% after the radio-frequency, analog, and mixed-signal semiconductor maker beat earnings estimates for its fiscal third quarter but issued weaker-than-expected guidance for the current quarter. Skyworks Solutions, which said in October that it would merge with Qorvo in a cash-and-stock deal, slumped 8.8%, making it the S&P 500’s biggest loser.
UnitedHealth edged up 1%, a day after the health insurer sank nearly 20%. Shares took a hit after UnitedHealth posted softer-than-expected quarterly revenue, issued an underwhelming outlook for the full year, and the Trump administration proposed keeping Medicare Advantage rates roughly flat in 2027, a move that hammered stocks across the healthcare sector. Humana, down 21% on Tuesday, was up 0.5% in premarket trading, while CVS Health, which tumbled 14% on Tuesday, climbed 0.4%.
Microsoft inched up 0.2% ahead of fiscal second-quarter earnings from the software giant. The focus for investors will be on the growth of Azure, Microsoft’s cloud computing platform. Analysts expect Azure revenue growth of 38.4%, down slightly from growth of 40% in the previous quarter.
Meta Platforms slipped 0.4% in the premarket session. Fourth-quarter earnings are scheduled after the closing bell from the parent company of Facebook and Instagram. Wall Street sees the company reporting adjusted earnings of $9.03 a share with revenue expected to jump to $58.5 billion from $48.4 billion a year earlier. Investors will also be watching Meta’s guidance on capital expenditures.
Tesla climbed 0.2%. Wall Street expects the electric-vehicle maker to report declines in fourth-quarter earnings and revenue as EV deliveries dropped significantly in the period. But earnings might not matter for the stock, which has fallen 4.2% this year. The market will instead be zeroing in on Tesla updates on robo-taxis and artificial-intelligence-trained robots.
Earnings reports are also expected Wednesday from International Business Machines, AT&T, Lam Research, GE Vernova, Amphenol, Danaher, ServiceNow, Starbucks, and General Dynamics.