The Federal Reserve's interest rate decision is due out later this afternoon
Stock futures are struggling for direction ahead of the Federal Reserve's first interest rate decision of 2025, due out at 2 p.m. ET. The CME FedWatch tool shows an extremely high probability that the Fed will keep rates unchanged. Futures on the Nasdaq-100 Index (NDX) are flat following yesterday's rebound from Monday's sharp tech selloff, while the Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJI) and S&P 500 Index (SPX) sit modestly lower.
Continue reading for more on today's market, including: .
5 Things You Need to Know Today
- The Cboe Options Exchange (CBOE) saw more than 1.8 million call contracts and 967,197 put contracts exchanged on Tuesday. The single-session equity put/call ratio fell to 0.53 and the 21-day moving average stayed at 0.60.
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China-based tech stock Alibaba Group Holding Ltd (NYSE:BABA) is up 3.9% premarket, looking to extend yesterday's 6.7% pop, after the launch of its artificial intelligence (AI) model. The company said its new Qwen 2.5-Max model outperforms DeepSeek’s V3 AI. Year over year, the equity is up 31.6%.
- T-Mobile US Inc (NASDAQ:TMUS) is up 6.5% before the bell, after the company posted a strong fourth-quarter earnings beat. Heading into today, TMUS is up 35.6% since last January.
- Trump Media and Technology Group Corp (NASDAQ:DJT) is up 14.9% in electronic trading, after the company announced it would expand into crypto and ETFs. Should these gains hold, DJT will recover its 11.9% year-to-date deficit.
- Plenty of earnings due out this week.
UK Finance Minister Supports Heathrow Expansion
Japan’s Nikkei added 1%, after the Bank of Japan’s (BoJ) December meeting minutes revealed discussions on neutral interest rates as inflation stays above its 2% target. Meanwhile, markets in South Korea, Hong Kong, and China were closed for the Lunar New Year holiday.
European markets are mostly higher Wednesday afternoon. London’s FTSE 100 was 0.3% higher at last check, after U.K. Finance Minister Rachel Reeves backed the construction of Heathrow’s third runway to boost growth, investment, and create as many as 100,000 jobs. Elsewhere, Germany’s DAX was last seen 0.8% higher, while France’s CAC 40 trades 0.2% lower.