S&P 500 Futures Higher as China Clears Nvidia Chip Orders

S&P 500 Index (SPX) and Nasdaq-100 Index (NDX) futures are pointed higher this morning, while the Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA) is just below breakeven. Investors are awaiting quarterly reports from Meta Platforms (META) and Microsoft (MSFT), both of which are due after the close, as well as today's interest rate decision, due out at 2 p.m. ET. Also boosting the tech sector is China's green light to Alibaba (BABA), ByteDance, and Tencent Music Entertainment Group (TME) to buy Nvidia’s (NVDA) H200 AI chips.

• Digging into whether small-cap outperformance will last with Senior Quantitative Analyst Rocky White.
• Unpacking Corning's deal with Meta Platforms.
• Plus, STX is in rally mode; more layoffs at Amazon; and chipmaker issues dismal outlook.

5 Things You Need to Know Today

1. The Cboe Options Exchange saw over 2 million call contracts and more than 1 million put contracts traded on Tuesday. The single-session equity put/call ratio dropped to 0.54, while the 21-day moving average remained at 0.58. 
2. The shares of Seagate Technology Holdings PLC (NASDAQ:STX) are 9.8% higher premarket, after the company's better-than-expected results for the fiscal second quarter amid strong demand for AI data centers. Year over year, STX is already up 259.3%.
3. Amazon.com Inc (NASDAQ:AMZN) stock is up 0.5% before the bell, after the e-commerce name announced it would eliminate another 16,000 jobs, bringing the total amount of layoffs since October to 30,000. AMZN sports a 30.6% nine-month lead.
4. Qorvo Inc (NASDAQ:QRVO) shares are down 9.4% in electronic trading, after the chipmaker issued a dismal outlook for its fiscal fourth quarter. QRVO has shed 15% over the last three months.
5. The Federal Reserve's interest rate decision is due out today.

European Markets Fall as Asian Stocks Rise

Asian bourses finished higher on Wednesday. South Korea held investor attention, after President Donald Trump said he may ease up on his tariff threat against Seoul. The country’s Kospi extended its rally for a second-straight day of record highs, closing up 1.7%. Elsewhere, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng jumped 2.6%, with energy stocks leading the charge, while Japan’s Nikkei added 0.05% and China’s Shanghai Composite rose 0.3%.

European stocks are trading lower despite a chip stock surge, as investors eye key earnings reports and the U.S. Federal Reserve’s first rate decision for 2026. France’s CAC 40 is down 1.4%, Germany’s DAX is chipping away 0.6%, and London’s FTSE 100 was last seen down 0.5%.