Wall Street closed sharply lower on Wednesday, with the Dow falling over 1,100 points after the U.S. Federal Reserve delivered a rate cut as expected but signaled it will ease the pace of further cuts in the coming year.
For the Dow it was its tenth consecutive daily loss, marking its longest losing streak since 1974 and its biggest daily percentage decline since early August. The Nasdaq and S&P 500 also logged their largest one-day drops in months.
Market Snapshot
The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 1,123.03 points, or 2.58%, to 42,326.87, the S&P 500 lost 178.45 points, or 2.95%, to 5,872.16 and the Nasdaq Composite lost 716.37 points, or 3.56%, to 19,392.69.
Market Movers
Tesla fell 8.3% after closing at a record high of $479.86 on Tuesday. The stock had gained 88% this year, and coming into Wednesday had risen more than 90% since Donald Trump was elected U.S. president on Nov. 5. Wall Street sees CEO Elon Musk's relationship with Trump benefiting the electric-vehicle maker.
Rivian Automotive fell 11% to $13.06. Analysts at Baird downgraded shares of the electric-vehicle company to Neutral from Outperform and reduced their price target to $16 from $18. "With the Volkswagen joint venture having recently closed and [the] Department of Energy funding announcement (a positive surprise) in the rearview, we see few catalysts in 2025 and expect shares to languish with EV sales," Baird said.
Nvidia, the leading maker of artificial-intelligence chips, fell 1.1% after falling 1.2% on Tuesday. It entered correction territory earlier this week. The stock has tumbled 12% since early November, wiping out about $400 billion in valuation as a number of factors have concerned investors, including an antitrust probe by China.
Japanese auto makers Honda and Nissan confirmed they were exploring a merger or other future collaboration. No final decision has been made, they said. Nikkei Asia reported Tuesday that the two auto makers had begun merger talks. The two companies had announced in March that they had started a "feasibility study or strategic partnership." U.S.-listed shares of Honda were down 4.8%. Nissan shares traded in the U.S. jumped 17%.
Micron Technology Inc. badly missed with its outlook for the latest quarter, which could stoke fears about near-term dynamics in the memory market. Shares were sliding 15% in Wednesday's extended session.
General Mills was down 3.1% after the packaged-food company reduced its fiscal 2025 outlook for adjusted earnings and operating profit.
Jabil was up 7.3% after the supplier of electronic parts easily beat quarterly earnings estimates and boosted fiscal 2025 guidance.
Netgear gained 4.8%. A report from The Wall Street Journal said the U.S. government was weighing a ban on TP-Link, a Chinese router manufacturer and one of Netgear's biggest rivals.
Heico was down 8.7% after the maker of products for the aviation, space, defense, medical, telecommunications, and electronics industries, reported fiscal fourth-quarter revenue up 8.2% from a year earlier to $1.01 billion but below analysts' estimates of $1.03 billion. Earnings in the quarter of 99 cents a share beat estimates of 98 cents.
Worthington Enterprises, the metals processor company, reported fiscal second-quarter adjusted earnings of 60 cents a share, better than analysts' consensus of 52 cents, and revenue of $274.1 million, which topped expectations of $273.8 million. Shares rose 10%.
CommScope Holding, the provider of infrastructure solutions for communications networks, rose 9.3% after the company closed a comprehensive refinancing with its first-lien secured lenders that will allow CommScope to address upcoming 2025 and 2026 debt maturities.
Market News
Amazon faces possible US strikes as Christmas looms
Pressure is building on Amazon.com to come to the bargaining table with the Teamsters union as thousands of workers threaten to strike during the retailer’s busy holiday selling season.
Workers in New York City, southern California and Skokie, Illinois, voted in recent days to authorize a strike should Amazon fail to bargain with the International Brotherhood of Teamsters. On Wednesday, the union said workers at Amazon facilities in Atlanta and in San Francisco joined in favor of striking.
US Supreme Court to consider TikTok bid to halt ban
The U.S. Supreme Court decided on Wednesday to hear a bid by TikTok and its China-based parent company, ByteDance, to block a law intended to force the sale of the short-video app by Jan. 19 or face a ban on national security grounds.
The justices did not immediately act on an emergency request by TikTok and ByteDance, as well as by some of its users who post content on the social media platform, for an injunction to halt the looming ban, opting instead to hear arguments on the matter on Jan. 10.