The broad market exchange-traded fund SPDR S&P 500 ETF Trust (SPY) was up 0.1% and the actively traded Invesco QQQ Trust (QQQ) advanced 0.3% in Wednesday's premarket activity, as investors await the Federal Reserve's interest rate decision and assess strong earnings from semiconductor companies.
US stock futures were mixed, with S&P 500 Index futures flat, Dow Jones Industrial Average futures slipping 0.03%, and Nasdaq futures gaining 0.03% before the start of regular trading.
US mortgage applications fell 2% in the week ended Jan. 24 as both refinancing and purchase activity declined, while the average 30-year fixed mortgage rate held steady at 7.02%, the Mortgage Bankers Association said Wednesday.
The international trade in goods, and the retail inventories and wholesale inventories bulletins, all for December, will be released at 8:30 am ET.
The weekly EIA petroleum status report posts at 10:30 am ET, followed by the Atlanta Fed's Survey of Business Uncertainty for December posts at 11 am ET.
The Federal Open Market Committee will make its rate announcement at 2 pm ET, followed by a press conference by Fed Chair Jerome Powell at 2:30 pm ET.
In premarket action, bitcoin was up by 1.2% and the cryptocurrency fund ProShares Bitcoin Strategy ETF (BITO) was 1.3% higher.
Power Play:
Financial
Financial Select Sector SPDR Fund (XLF) slipped 0.04%. Direxion Daily Financial Bull 3X Shares (FAS) was down 0.1%, while its bearish counterpart Direxion Daily Financial Bear 3X Shares (FAZ) was flat.
Virtu Financial (VIRT) shares were up 5.8% pre-bell Wednesday after the company reported higher Q4 adjusted earnings and revenue.
Winners and Losers:
Health Care
The Health Care Select Sector SPDR Fund (XLV) retreated 0.3%. The Vanguard Health Care Index Fund (VHT) was up 1.3% while the iShares US Healthcare ETF (IYH) was inactive. The iShares Biotechnology ETF (IBB) was flat.
Danaher (DHR) stock was down 5.5% premarket after the company reported lower-than-expected Q4 adjusted earnings and said it expects Q1 non-GAAP core revenue to decline low-single digits year-over-year.
Consumer
The Consumer Staples Select Sector SPDR Fund (XLP) was up 0.3%, while the Vanguard Consumer Staples Fund (VDC) was down 0.04%. The iShares US Consumer Staples ETF (IYK), the Consumer Discretionary Select Sector SPDR Fund (XLY), the VanEck Retail ETF (RTH), and the SPDR S&P Retail ETF (XRT) were inactive.
Alibaba (BABA) shares were up 3.5% pre-bell after the company's Cloud unit released its enhanced Qwen 2.5-Max AI model, saying it outperformed DeepSeek-V3, GPT-4o, and Llama-3.1-405B across several benchmarks.
Technology
Technology Select Sector SPDR Fund (XLK) advanced 0.3%, and the iShares US Technology ETF (IYW) was 0.1% higher, while the iShares Expanded Tech Sector ETF (IGM) was flat. Among semiconductor ETFs, SPDR S&P Semiconductor ETF (XSD) was inactive, while the iShares Semiconductor ETF (SOXX) rose by 1.4%.
Automatic Data Processing (ADP) shares were up 2.1% in recent Wednesday premarket activity after the company reported higher fiscal Q2 adjusted earnings and revenue.
Industrial
Industrial Select Sector SPDR Fund (XLI) advanced 0.2% and the Vanguard Industrials Index Fund (VIS) gained 0.9%, while the iShares US Industrials ETF (IYJ) was inactive.
Otis Worldwide (OTIS) stock was down 2% before the opening bell continuing from its 1.9% fall at the prior close. The company reported higher Q4 financial results but with adjusted earnings trailing analysts' estimates.
Energy
The iShares US Energy ETF (IYE) was inactive, while the Energy Select Sector SPDR Fund (XLE) was up by 0.1%.
W&T Offshore (WTI) stock was up 1% before Wednesday's opening bell after the company said it repurchased about 98% of its outstanding 11.75% senior second lien notes due 2026 and repaid $114.2 million in term loan debt.
Commodities
Front-month US West Texas Intermediate crude oil declined 0.5% to $73.44 per barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Natural gas fell 1.8% to $3.41 per 1 million British Thermal Units. United States Oil Fund (USO) lost 0.8%, while the United States Natural Gas Fund (UNG) was 1.3% lower.
Gold futures for April retreated 0.04% to $2,793.60 an ounce on the Comex, and silver futures gained 0.4% to reach $30.99 an ounce. SPDR Gold Shares (GLD) were up 0.1%, while the iShares Silver Trust (SLV) was 0.3% higher.
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