It is Fed day, which in modern market terms means a few hours of everyone pretending they know what the central bank will say, followed by a press conference at 2:30 p.m. ET where the actual information content is usually somewhere between zero and a shrug.

U.S. stock futures were mixed on Wednesday, as the Dow Jones, S&P 500, and Nasdaq 100 index futures moved in different directions, following Tuesday's higher close.

Investors will watch the Federal Reserve Open Market Committee's interest rate decision and the monetary policy report later today, with the FOMC press conference scheduled at 2:30 p.m. ET. The CME Group's FedWatch tool projections show markets pricing in a 90.6% likelihood of interest rates being unchanged.

Here is the futures scoreboard as of the last check:

The SPDR S&P 500 ETF Trust (SPY), the Invesco QQQ Trust ETF (QQQ) and the SPDR Dow Jones Industrial Average ETF Trust (DIA), which track the S&P 500 index, Nasdaq 100 index and Dow Jones Industrial Average, respectively, were mixed in premarket trading on Wednesday. The SPY was up 0.10% at $770.46, the QQQ advanced 0.39% to $724.04, and the DIA fell 0.18% to $522.36.

Washington Is Doing Two Things At Once

President Donald Trump said he plans to ban the term "artificial intelligence" from relevant government documents and urged the use of "super intelligence" instead, prompting Rep. Ted Lieu to argue that renaming the technology will not address oversight concerns. This is the policy equivalent of rebranding a product and hoping the reviews improve.

Meanwhile, the U.S. military has spent over $47 billion so far to prosecute the war in Iran, according to Pentagon data obtained by Reuters, compared with Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth's July estimate of $37.5 billion. Reuters also reported that more than $29 billion would go to replace expended munitions and more than $6 billion would be needed from Congress for equipment and platform losses.

On the bond side, the 10-year Treasury bond yielded 5.01%, and the 2-year Treasury bond yielded 4.75%, at the last check.

Stocks In Focus

Visa

• Visa Inc. (V) was 1.63% lower in premarket trading on Wednesday after reporting fourth-quarter 2026 earnings of $3.48 per share on revenue of $12.14 billion, beating estimates.
• MarketDash's Edge Stock Rankings indicate that V maintains a positive price trend in the short, medium, and long terms, with a poor value score.

UBS Group

• UBS Group AG (UBS) was 2.54% lower in premarket trading on Wednesday after reporting third-quarter 2026 earnings of $0.85 per share on revenue of $13.35 billion, missing estimates.
• MarketDash's Edge Stock Rankings indicate that UBS maintains a negative price trend in the short and medium terms but a strong trend in the long term, with a good momentum score.

SK Hynix

• SK Hynix Inc. (SKHY) was 7.55% higher in premarket trading on Wednesday after the company reported revenue of $78.23 billion and operating profit of $62.32 billion, an operating margin of 80%.
• MarketDash's Edge Stock Rankings indicate that SKHY maintains a negative price trend in the short, medium, and long terms, with a strong growth score.

An 80% operating margin is the kind of number that makes you check the spreadsheet twice. Memory pricing cycles are wonderful things when they are pointing in your direction.

Seagate Technology Holdings

• Seagate Technology Holdings PLC (STX) was 3.64% lower in premarket trading on Wednesday despite beating first-quarter 2027 estimates with earnings of $7.68 per share on revenue of $4.23 billion.
• MarketDash's Edge Stock Rankings indicate that STX maintains a negative price trend in the short and medium terms but a positive trend in the long term, with a good growth score.

Alphabet

• Alphabet Inc. (GOOGL) (GOOG) was 1.18% higher in premarket trading on Wednesday as analysts expect third-quarter 2026 earnings of $3.02 per share on revenue of $128.18 billion after the closing bell.
• MarketDash's Edge Stock Rankings indicate that GOOGL maintains a negative price trend in the short, medium, and long terms, with a strong quality score.

Cues From Last Session

U.S. stocks closed higher on Tuesday, led by information technology, consumer discretionary, and materials. Energy, consumer staples, and real estate lagged.

The Rotation Story, According To Siegel

Professor Jeremy J. Siegel, senior economist to WisdomTree and emeritus professor of finance at The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, said last week featured an "extraordinarily sharp rotation out of growth and into value," with the Russell Value Index and the S&P Value Index reaching all-time highs even as the Nasdaq sold off.

He tied the rotation to uncertainty about the scale and durability of the AI investment boom and said the 10-year Treasury yield moving back below 5% supported bonds and rate-sensitive value stocks.

Siegel wrote, "That is why I continue to view bonds and value stocks as natural hedges against the dominant AI trade," and added, "The market is no longer trading as one giant AI momentum story."

He also said this week's Federal Reserve meeting should be "rather uneventful," noting there is no Summary of Economic Projections or dot plot and he sees no change in policy. No dot plot means no scatter chart to over-interpret, which is its own small gift to humanity.

What To Watch Wednesday

Here's what investors will be keeping an eye on Wednesday.

• September's advance U.S. trade balance in goods, wholesale inventories, and retail inventories data will all be released by 8:30 a.m. ET.
• The Fed's interest rate decision will be announced by 2 p.m. ET.

Commodities, Crypto, And Global Equity Markets

Crude Oil WTI futures were trading higher in the early New York session by 1.86% to hover around $101.76 per barrel. Meanwhile, Brent futures were trading higher in the early New York session by 1.56% to hover around $111.12 per barrel.

Gold Spot US Dollar fell 0.22% to hover around $4,053.51 per ounce. The U.S. Dollar Index spot was 0.01% higher at the 102.3784 level.

Meanwhile, Bitcoin (CRYPTO: BTC) was trading at $81,410 per coin, up about 2.3% over the past 24 hours.

Asian markets were mixed on Wednesday, as Australia's ASX 200 and India's Nifty 50 indices fell. South Korea's Kospi, China's CSI 300, Hong Kong's Hang Seng, and Japan's Nikkei 225 indices rose. European markets were lower in early trading.

So: a mixed tape, a Fed decision that almost everyone expects to be a non-event, oil above $100, and a memory chip maker posting margins that look like a typo. Enjoy the press conference.