Traders work on the floor at the New York Stock Exchange in New York City, U.S., June 3, 2026.
Brendan McDermid | Reuters
U.S. equity futures were mixed early Wednesday as investors await earnings reports from mega-cap technology companies and a rate policy decision from the Federal Reserve due Wednesday.
S&P 500 futures inched higher and Nasdaq-100 futures rose 0.5%. Dow futures were 0.2% lower.
In Asia, Japan’s Nikkei 225 closed 1.08% higher and South Korea’s Kospi rose 6.63%. Australia’s benchmark S&P/ASX 200 was flat. Mainland China’s CSI 300 closed 0.85% higher.
In Tuesday’s regular U.S. trading, the major averages ended the session higher. Chip stocks rose again, this time powered by an announcement from Broadcom that a group of banks would provide $63 billion in financing to buy the company’s chips and networking solutions to be leased to Anthropic, the company behind Claude. Broadcom rose 4%, while Advanced Micro Devices climbed 5.5% and Micron Technology rose 2.8%.
Those moves led the Nasdaq Composite to rise 1.2% on the session.
Stocks were also supported by lower oil prices, which fell following news that Iran’s Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei met with the nation’s top security official Mohsen Rezaei to discuss conditions for ending the war with the U.S.
On Wednesday, though, focus will turn to domestic monetary policy as the Fed wraps up its two-day policy meeting. The central bank is widely predicted to keep interest rates steady at a target rate range of 3.75% to 4%. Policymakers raised rates by a quarter percentage point at their September meeting.
According to CME’s FedWatch tool, there’s a roughly 92% chance that the Fed maintains the current interest rate, but some expect that Chairman Kevin Warsh will signal that more hikes are coming in future policy meetings. The decision on interest rates will be announced at 2:00 p.m. ET.
After the bell on Wednesday, though, investors will turn their focus to the AI trade, as “Magnificent Seven” giants Alphabet and Microsoft will kick off Big Tech earnings.
Tech stocks, particularly those with exposure to the AI buildout, have struggled in recent weeks amid questions over the technology’s financing. However, Morgan Stanley’s chief U.S. equity strategist, Mike Wilson, thinks that the recent recovery in tech stocks is a sign that the trend may be nearing its end.
“Most of the correction is already over,” he said in an appearance on CNBC’s “Closing Bell” on Tuesday. “We’ve been in correction mode for four or five months… the market I think has digested this very efficiently.”