Nvidia May Help Lead Continued Advance On Wall Street

(RTTNews) - The major U.S. index futures are currently pointing to a higher open on Wednesday, with stocks likely to extend the strong upward move seen over the past several sessions.

Nvidia (NVDA) may continue to lead the markets higher, as the AI darling is surging by 3.6 percent in pre-market trading and closing in on becoming the first company with a $5 trillion market capitalization.

Shares of Nvidia spiked by 5.0 percent on Tuesday after the chipmaker announced deals with several big-name companies, including a strategic partnership with Nokia (NOK) that includes a $1 billion investment in the Finnish networking firm.

The upward momentum on Wall Street also comes amid optimism ahead of the Federal Reserve's latest monetary policy announcement later this afternoon.

With the Fed widely expected to lower interest rates by another quarter point, traders will be looking to the accompanying statement as well as Fed Chair Jerome Powell's post-meeting comments for clues about the likelihood of further rate cuts.

CME Group's FedWatch Tool is currently indicating an 87.0 percent chance the Fed will lower rates by another quarter point in December, but the views about the chances of further rate cuts in early 2026 are more mixed.

Stocks fluctuated over the course of the trading session on Tuesday but largely maintained a positive bias and ended the day mostly higher. The major averages added to the strong gains posted during Monday's session, once again reaching new record closing highs.

The major averages pulled back off their highs in late-day trading but still closed in positive territory. The Nasdaq advanced 190.04 points or 0.8 percent to 23,827.49, the Dow climbed 161.78 points or 0.3 percent to 47,706.37 and the S&P 500 rose 15.73 points or 0.2 percent to 6,890.89.

The strength on Wall Street came as stocks continued to benefit from recent upward momentum, which led to the rally on Monday amid optimism about a potential trade deal between the U.S. and China.

News of a rare metals deal between the U.S. and Japan may have increased confidence ahead of President Donald Trump's meeting with his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping later this week.

However, traders seemed somewhat reluctant to make more significant moves ahead of the Federal Reserve's monetary policy announcement on Wednesday.

Traders are also looking ahead to the release of earnings news from a number of big-name tech companies, with Alphabet (GOOGL), Apple (AAPL), Meta Platforms (META), Microsoft (MSGFT) and Amazon (AMZN) due to report their quarterly results in the coming days.

In U.S. economic news, the Conference Board released a report showing a modest deterioration by consumer confidence in the month of October.

The Conference Board said its consumer confidence index dipped to 94.6 in October from an upwardly revised 95.6 in September.

Economists had expected the consumer confidence index to slip to 93.4 from the 94.2 originally reported for the previous month.

Networking stocks showed a strong move to the upside over the course of the session, driving the NYSE Arca Networking Index up by 1.6 percent to a record closing high.

Significant strength was also visible among steel stocks, as reflected by the 1.6 percent gain posted by the NYSE Arca Steel Index.

On the other hand, airline stocks moved sharply lower on the day, resulting in a 4.1 percent nosedive by the NYSE Arca Airline Index.

Commercial real estate, utilities and oil stocks also saw considerable weakness, limiting the upside for the broader markets.

Commodity, Currency Markets

Crude oil futures are edging down $0.09 to $60.06 a barrel after tumbling $1.16 to $60.15 a barrel on Tuesday. Meanwhile, an ounce of gold is trading at $4,041, up $57.90 compared to the previous session's close of $3,968.10. On Tuesday, gold slid $36.60.

On the currency front, the U.S. dollar is trading at 152.24 yen compared to the 152.10 yen it fetched at the close of New York trading on Tuesday. Against the euro, the dollar is trading at $1.1632 compared to yesterday's $1.1650.

Asia

Asian stocks rose broadly on Wednesday, with benchmark indexes in Japan and South Korea reaching new record highs ahead of a Federal Reserve interest rate cut expected later in the day.

Investor attention was also focused on upcoming earnings from U.S. mega tech companies and Thursday's Trump-Xi meeting.

"I think we're going to have a great meeting with President Xi of China, and a lot of problems are going to be solved," U.S. President Donald Trump said en route to South Korea where he is due to meet with his counterpart Xi Jinping.

According to the Wall Street Journal, the leaders may discuss a proposed trade framework that could see Washington reduce tariffs on Chinese goods in exchange for Beijing's commitment to curb exports of fentanyl precursor chemicals.

China's Shanghai Composite Index rose 0.7 percent to 4,016.33, ending at its highest level since July 2015, led by gains in energy and non-ferrous metal shares. Hong Kong markets were closed for a public holiday.

Japanese stocks hit new record highs on optimism over an artificial intelligence boom at home and abroad. Sentiment was also underpinned after a new U.S.-Japan rare earths agreement was signed during Trump's visit to Tokyo.

The Nikkei 225 Index shot up 2.2 percent to 51,307.65, surging past the key 51,000 level for the first time. The broader Topix Index slipped 0.2 percent, to 3,278.24 as exporters fell amid a rebound in the yen ahead of the Bank of Japan's policy decision this week.

U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent urged Japan's government to give the Bank of Japan (BOJ) room to raise interest rates in order to anchor inflation expectations and avoid excess exchange rate volatility.

Tech stocks topped the gainers list after Nvidia said it would build seven new AI supercomputers for the U.S. Department of Energy. Advantest soared 22.1 percent, Tokyo Electron gained 3.3 percent and SoftBank Group added 3.9 percent.

Seoul stocks reached a new peak on hopes for the Seoul-Washington summit and a potential supply deal with Nvidia. The Kospi jumped 1.8 percent to 4,081.15.

Nvidia supplier SK Hynix soared 7.1 percent after it announced record quarterly earnings, boosted by strong demand for its high bandwidth memory used in generative AI chipsets.

Australian markets ended sharply lower after data showed consumer prices in the country rose 3.2 percent in the third quarter, the strongest growth in more than a year.

Core inflation also accelerated beyond expectations, complicating the Reserve Bank's path to further policy easing.

The benchmark S&P/ASX 200 Index slumped .0 percent to 8,926.20, closing at a two-week low dragged down by banks and real estate stocks. The broader All Ordinaries Index settled 0.8 percent lower at 9,218.80.

Woolworths Group shares rallied 2.4 percent. The supermarket chain beat estimates for fiscal first quarter sales, driven by growth in WooliesX and B2B sectors.

Across the Tasman, New Zealand's benchmark S&P/NZX-50 Index finished marginally higher at 13,409.21, giving up early gains after hitting an over two-week high.

Europe

European shares have moved mostly higher on Wednesday as investors digest a slew of earnings and look ahead to the Federal Reserve's interest rate decision later in the day, with a quarter point cut fully priced in.

While the U.K.'s FTSE 100 Index is up by 0.9 percent, the German DAX Index and the French CAC 40 Index are both up by 0.1 percent.

Logitech International shares have moved sharply higher. The Swiss-based computer peripherals firm posted higher annual second quarter fiscal 2026 earnings, beating estimates.

Dutch chip-making equipment supplier ASM International has also moved to the upside despite reporting third-quarter bookings below market expectations.

Mercedes-Benz has also soared. The German carmaker confirmed its annual outlook and plans to proceed with a €2 billion ($2.3 billion) share buyback after posting stronger-than-expected third quarter results.

Deutsche Bank has also advanced after the lender posted a surprise 7 percent increase in quarterly profit, defying expectation for a drop.

Chemicals maker BASF has also rallied after its quarterly adjusted operating earnings came in slightly above expectations.

Meanwhile, Swedish industrial bearings maker SKF has slumped as it reported sales and adjusted operating profit for the third quarter of 2025 in line with analysts' expectations.

U.S. Economic News

The National Association of Realtors is scheduled to release its report on pending home sales in the month of September at 10 am ET. Pending home sales are expected to jump by 1.0 percent in September after surging by 4.0 percent in August.

At 10:30 am ET, the Energy Information Administration is due to release its report on crude oil inventories in the week ended October 24th.

At 2 pm ET, the Federal Reserve is scheduled to announce its latest monetary policy decision, followed by Fed Chair Jerome Powell's post-meeting press conference at 2:30 pm ET.