Wall Street Today: DJIA, S&P 500, Nasdaq Comp Fall on FOMC, Oil Hikes and CAT, SKHY, MU Losses

The Dow-30, S&P 500 and Nasdaq Composite all fell sharply Wednesday as rising oil prices, a Fed decision not to cut rates and losses for tech and non-tech giants like Caterpillar, SK Hynix and Micron sent Wall Street lower.

The $Dow Jones Industrial Average (.DJI.US)$ shed 1,153.18 points (2.2%) to a 51,594.14 close, while the $S&P 500 Index (.SPX.US)$ eased 112.63 ticks (1.5%) to 7,316.15 and the $Nasdaq Composite Index (.IXIC.US)$ lost 433.97 points (1.7%) to 24,442.94.

Macro

The three indices lost ground in a large measure on weakness for tech giants, which sank yet again as Wall Street panned quarterly results or forward guidance for several firms.

Tech stocks to fall sharply following earnings reports late Tuesday or early Wednesday included $Vertiv Holdings (VRT.US)$ (down 17.3%), $KLA Corp (KLAC.US)$ (off 10.8%), fintech $SoFi Technologies (SOFI.US)$ (8.9% weaker) and $SK hynix (SKHY.US)$ (2.6% lower).

That helped set a negative tone for tech sector in general.

Other Big Techs to see significant losses included $IREN Ltd (IREN.US)$ (13.6% lower), $NEBIUS (NBIS.US)$ (off 12.7%), $Micron Technology (MU.US)$ (9.9% softer), $CoreWeave (CRWV.US)$ (9.6% lower) and $Arm Holdings (ARM.US)$ (which fell 8.1% ahead of earnings after the bell).

Tech stocks to sink by lesser percentage amounts included $SanDisk (SNDK.US)$ (7.3% weaker), $Marvell Technology (MRVL.US)$ (6.3% lower), $Nokia Oyj (NOK.US)$ (off 5.8%), $Advanced Micro Devices (AMD.US)$ (down 5.5%), $NVIDIA (NVDA.US)$ (3.6% softer) and $Intel (INTC.US)$ (which lost 1.7%).

The sector fell ahead of a fresh crop of major earnings due out after the bell from $Microsoft (MSFT.US)$, $Meta Platforms (META.US)$ and other tech giants. (Microsoft later rose 3.4% as of about 5 p.m. New York time on revenue and earnings beats, while Meta fell 7.2% following an earnings miss.)

Adding to the market's woes, non-tech Dow components $Caterpillar (CAT.US)$ (down 6.9%), $Goldman Sachs (GS.US)$ (off 5.1%), and $JPMorgan (JPM.US)$ (3.5% lower) all fell as well, in some cases giving up recent gains.

Meanwhile, one-time tech darling $SpaceX (SPCX.US)$ lost 3.3% to $112.55, its lowest close since going public on June 12.

In other negatives for stocks, the Federal Reserve's policy-making committee voted 9-3 to keep the central bank's benchmark Federal Funds rate unchanged at a 3.5%-3.75% range.

The three dissenting board members wanted to raise the rate by 25 basis points in a bid to curb excess U.S. inflation.

Wall Street typically dislikes rising interest rates, which can draw money away from equities by making bond and money-market yields more attractive to some investors.

And in further bad news for stocks, $Crude Oil Futures (NOV6) (CLmain.US)$ rose 7.5% at last check to $85.17 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange.

Energy prices soared after U.S. President Donald Trump vowed to hit Iran "hard" for a surprise attempted missile attack on an American military base in Jordan that ended a four-day lull in fighting between Washington and Tehran.

Higher oil prices can lead to inflation and rising interest rates, both of which historically hurt stocks.

In fact, rising petroleum prices and the FOMC's decision to raise rates pushed U.S. Treasury yields higher Wednesday.

The $U.S. 30-Year Treasury Bonds Yield (US30Y.BD)$ jumped as much as 10.5 basis points to 5.227% – its highest level since July 2007 just prior to the 2007-2009 market meltdown.

Elsewhere in markets, cryptocurrencies mostly fell in a "risk-off" move that mirrored U.S. stocks' woes.

$Bitcoin (BTC.CC)$ shed 0.5% to $63,406.91 as of about 5 p.m. New York time, while $Ethereum (ETH.CC)$ lost 1.8% to $1,881.82 and $Solana (SOL.CC)$ gave back 2.1% to $72.56. However, $Ripple (XRP.CC)$ added 0.5% to $1.06.

Moo-vers

The "Magnificent Seven" stocks took their cue from the broad market and ended Wednesday mostly lower.

$NVIDIA (NVDA.US)$ led the Mag-7 decliners with its aforementioned 3.6% loss.

Other Mag-7 names to fall included $Tesla (TSLA.US)$(down 3%), $Amazon (AMZN.US)$ (1.8% softer), $Meta Platforms (META.US)$ (1.3% lower), $Microsoft (MSFT.US)$ (which shed 0.7%) and $Apple (AAPL.US)$(0.6% weaker).

Only $Alphabet-A (GOOGL.US)$ rose among the Mag-7 stocks, improving by 0.9%.

Elsewhere on Wall Street, Wednesday's noteworthy percentage winners included:

-- Select tech stocks that managed to rise Wednesday. Gainers included $ServiceNow (NOW.US)$, which rose 4.7% as it continues to bounce from a nearly three-year low hit in April. Meanwhile, $Seagate Technology (STX.US)$ gained 2.3% after the hard-drive maker reported fiscal Q4 revenue and adjusted-earnings beats late Tuesday.

Conversely, Wednesday's big decliners included:

-- Certain quantum-computing stocks, which continued to give back recent gains amid Wednesday's big tech sell-off. Losers included $Rigetti Computing (RGTI.US)$ (9% lower), $D-Wave Quantum (QBTS.US)$ (down 8.3%),$IonQ Inc (IONQ.US)$ (off 5.6%) and $Quantum Computing (QUBT.US)$ (5.4% weaker).

-- $Rocket Lab (RKLB.US)$, 8.3% lower. The space-launch firm fell in apparent sympathy with SpaceX's decline and the market's broader "risk-off" sentiment.

Disclaimer: This presentation is for informational and educational use only and is not a recommendation or endorsement of any particular investment or investment strategy. Indexes are unmanaged and cannot be directly invested in. Past performance is no indication of future results. Investing involves risk and the potential to lose principal. Investment information provided in this content is general in nature, strictly for illustrative purposes, and may not be appropriate for all investors. It is provided without respect to individual investors' financial sophistication, financial situation, investment objectives, investing time horizon, or risk tolerance. You should consider the appropriateness of this information regarding your relevant personal circumstances before making any investment decisions. Past investment performance does not indicate or guarantee future success. Returns will vary, and all investments carry risks, including loss of principal.

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