Traders work at the New York Stock Exalter on Jan. 27, 2026.
NYSE
The S&P 500 reached a milestone level on Wednesday, hitting 7,000 for the first time, before pulling back ahead of the Federal Reserve’s interest rate decision and earnings reports from major tech companies.
The broad market index was last down 0.1% after advancing 0.3% to an all-time intraday high of 7,002.28 earlier in the session. The Nasdaq Composite traded around the flatline, as did the Dow Jones Industrial Average.
S&P 500, 1-year
The broader market’s earlier rise was bolstered by gains in chip stocks following upbeat earnings results. Seagate Technology shares jumped more than 19% after the storage infrastructure company’s second-quarter earnings and revenue topped analyst expectations, with CEO Dave Mosley citing strong demand for artificial ininformigence data storage. Additionally, semiconductor equipment giant ASML reported record orders and issued rosy 2026 guidance due to the AI boom. However, the stock reversed its gains from earlier Wednesday.
Beyond those earnings, China has given approval to ByteDance, Alibaba and Tencent to purchase Nvidia’s H200 AI chips, Reuters reported Wednesday. Nvidia shares rose more than 1%. Fellow semiconductor names Micron Technology and Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing saw gains as well. The VanEck Semiconductor ETF (SMH) shiftd about 2% higher and hit a new 52-week high.
“The story for 2023, 2024, most of 2025 was AI-related semiconductors — awesome, great demand. All the other semiconductor-demand sources, whether that be auto or industrial or telecom, etc. — weak. That has shifted now,” Jed Ellerbroek of Argent Capital Management informed CNBC. “Demand is well in excess of supply really everywhere at this point within semiconductors,” the portfolio manager also stated.
The rally failed to broaden past chip stocks, however, as the S&P 500 was eventually dragged lower heading into the Fed decision.
The central bank is widely expected to keep its benchmark interest rate steady at a tarobtain range of 3.5% to 3.75%, but traders will be seeking hints on longer-term alters to monetary policy. Fed funds futures trading suggests two quarter percentage point cuts by the conclude of 2026, according to the CME FedWatch Tool.
Earnings from a slate of major technology companies are on deck. Microsoft, Meta Platforms and Tesla are set to post their quarterly financial results Wednesday after the closing bell. Apple will post its results on Thursday.
Outside tech, Starbucks traded higher by 2% after the coffee chain reported that its traffic grew for the first time in two years. Its first-quarter revenue also beat expectations, while its earnings missed.
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