Nasdaq Composite Treads Carefully Ahead of Big Tech Bonanza, Fed Decision

The Nasdaq Composite (^IXIC) opened Wednesday’s session on the back foot, slipping 0.21% as investors adopted a wait-and-see posture ahead of a day packed with market-moving catalysts. With the Federal Reserve set to deliver its latest rate decision this afternoon and four of the Big Tech companies reporting earnings after the bell, caution was the order of the day. The Nasdaq Composite (^IXIC) is looking at a 12.8% gain for the month of April if it can hold on to current levels.

Amazon, Alphabet, Meta, and Microsoft are all due to report quarterly results today, and the stakes couldn’t be higher. OpenAI is influencing sentiment across the board, following a report that the AI giant has fallen short of its own internal growth targets , news that rattled AI-adjacent stocks on Tuesday. In a separate development, Amazon confirmed that OpenAI’s models will be available through its AWS cloud platform, just one day after the company announced a significant reshaping of its partnership with Microsoft.

Corporate America’s appetite for capital spending showed no signs of cooling in March, with core capital goods orders surging 3.3%, the sharpest monthly climb in five years, following a revised 1.6% rise in February. Durable goods orders broadly held their own, gaining 0.8% on the month with strength spread across communications equipment, electrical hardware, vehicles, and military aircraft. Shipments, which feed directly into GDP models, rounded out the strong picture, up 0.5% overall and accelerating to 1.2% once aircraft are excluded.

Wait and See

Adding to the uncertainty, oil prices pushed higher on renewed fears of prolonged shipping disruption through the Strait of Hormuz, with Brent crude briefly clearing $115 a barrel and WTI climbing above $103. The UAE’s surprise exit from OPEC rattled energy markets further, injecting an additional layer of geopolitical risk into an already tense macro backdrop

Jerome Powell and the Fed will also be front and center this afternoon, with the policy statement expected to be parsed word by word by traders looking for any signal on the rate path ahead. Separately, the Senate Banking Committee is moving to advance Kevin Warsh’s nomination to take the reins at the Fed once Powell’s term expires on May 15, a leadership transition that adds another variable for markets to digest.

Stock Movers

Susquehanna’s Christopher Rolland bumped his price target on Advanced Micro Devices (Nasdaq: AMD) from $300 to $375, while maintaining a Positive rating on the stock.

SoFi (Nasdaq; SOFI) delivered a solid quarter, beating revenue expectations with $1.09B against a $1.05B consensus and adding 1.1 million new members to bring its total to 14.7 million.