Wall Street benchmarks closed modestly higher on Wednesday, with the Nasdaq Composite achieving its latest record finish, despite a chaotic half hour when news reports suggested U.S. President Donald Trump was set to fire Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell.
Market Snapshot
The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 231.49 points, or 0.53%, to 44,254.78, the S&P 500 rose 19.94 points, or 0.32%, to 6,263.70 and the Nasdaq Composite rose 52.69 points, or 0.25%, to 20,730.49.
Market Movers
Nvidia rose 0.4% after rising 4% on Tuesday to a record high of $170.70. The maker of artificial-intelligence chips received assurances from the U.S. government that it would approve the company's license applications to sell the H20 AI chip to China. Nvidia has gained 28% this year.
Advanced Micro Devices, meanwhile, rose 2.9%. Shares of the chip maker rose 6.4% on Tuesday to $155.61, notching the highest close since Oct. 29, after receiving approval to resume shipments of MI308 chips to China. Shares of AMD have risen 33% in 2025.
Tesla shares rose 3.5% on Wednesday. Tesla Inc. is preparing to launch a longer, six-seat version of its Model Y sport utility vehicle in China, where the carmaker has been losing ground to domestic manufacturers with fresher lineups.
GameSquare stock rocketed 53%, SharpLink Gaming surged 29% as ethereum topped $3,400 at one time. SharpLink Gaming extended its impressive monthly gain to 276%. The dramatic rise comes after the company announced it had become the world's largest corporate holder of Ethereum (ETH), a major cryptocurrency.
ASML tumbled 8.3% after the Dutch chip equipment manufacturer said it couldn't guarantee growth in 2026 because of tariff uncertainty. "We continue to see increasing uncertainty driven by macroeconomic and geopolitical developments," Chief Executive Christophe Fouquet said. ASML's warning came as the company reported second-quarter earnings, including orders of EUR5.54 billion ($6.44 billion) for its chip-making machines, down slightly from a year earlier but ahead of analysts' targets.
ASML's warning weighed on peer stocks. Applied Materials fell 2.3%, KLA declined 0.3%, and Lam Research was down 0.7%.
Johnson & Johnson jumped 6.2% after second-quarter earnings and sales topped analysts' estimates. The drug and medical device maker said it expects full-year sales of between $93.2 billion and $93.6 billion, representing an increase of between 5.1% and 5.6% from last year.
Goldman Sachs posted second-quarter earnings that were better than analysts' estimates. Net income in the period increased 22% from a year earlier to $3.72 billion. Shares of the investment bank rose 0.9%.
Morgan Stanley's quarterly earnings of $2.13 a share on revenue of $16.8 billion exceeded analysts' estimates. Earnings were lifted by strong performance from the company's wealth management unit, which saw revenue climb in the second quarter to $7.8 billion from $6.8 billion a year earlier. The stock fell 1.3%.
Bank of America was down 0.3% even though the bank reported second-quarter earnings that were better than expected. Net income for the second quarter increased 3% from a year earlier to $7.1 billion, while net interest income rose 7% to $14.7 billion.
Palantir Technologies gained 1.6% to $150.91 after shares of the data analytics company were upgraded to Neutral from Underperform by analysts at Mizuho. The firm also raised its price target on the stock to $135 from $116. Palantir "has a legitimate chance to accelerate revenue growth for a fifth consecutive quarter" when it reports earnings next month, Mizuho said.
Global Payments rose 6.5% after the Financial Times reported that hedge fund Elliott Management had established a large stake in the payments processing company. The size of the stake couldn't be determined. Global Payments reached a deal in April to acquire rival Worldpay for $24.25 billion. Shares have declined 26% this year.
Brighthouse Financial climbed 6.2% after The Wall Street Journal reported investment firm Aquarian Holdings was in exclusive talks to acquire the U.S. life insurance company. A deal could be completed in the coming weeks, the Journal reported, citing people familiar with the matter.
Ford Motor declined 2.9% after the auto maker projected it would cost about $570 million to fix fuel injectors as part of a vehicle recall of 700,000 cars, including certain 2021 to 2024 model year Bronco Sport, 2020 to 2022 Escape, and 2019 to 2024 Kuga vehicles.
Market News
Trump Says He's "Not Planning" to Fire Fed's Powell
U.S. President Donald Trump said Wednesday he is not planning to fire Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell even as he unleashed a fresh round of criticism against the central bank chief for not lowering interest rates and declined to completely reject the possibility of ousting him.
A Bloomberg report earlier Wednesday that the president is likely to fire Powell soon sparked a drop in stocks and the dollar, and a rise in Treasury yields.
Talks on Considering Cryptocurrency Legislation Bog Down in US House
Voting in the U.S. House of Representatives on whether to open debate on several cryptocurrency bills bogged down on Wednesday, a day after President Donald Trump intervened to try and save the initiative.
The bills would pave the way for digital assets to further integrate into traditional finance, but remained stuck late on Wednesday after several hours of closed-door negotiations among Republicans over how best to proceed.
