Pre-Bell｜U.S. Stock Futures Muted; PDD, NIO Gain Around 3%; Alibaba Jumps over 2%; Tesla, Nvidia Fall 1% Each; Workday Jumps over 8%

U.S. stock index futures were little changed on Wednesday as investors held back on big bets while awaiting an announcement after the Federal Reserve's two-day meeting to assess the monetary policy path.

The U.S. central bank is widely expected to reduce borrowing costs by at least 25 basis points at 2 p.m. ET, a move priced in by investors after a series of economic indicators pointed to a weakening jobs market.

Market Snapshot

At 7:50 a.m. ET, Dow e-minis were up 24 points, or 0.05%, S&P 500 E-minis were down 4 points, or 0.06%, and Nasdaq 100 E-minis were down 16.25 points, or 0.07%.

Pre-Market Movers

Nvidia fell 1.3% after report from the Financial Times said China's internet regulator had banned the country's biggest tech companies from buying its artificial-intelligence chips. The Cyberspace Administration of China told TikTok parent ByteDance and e-commerce giant Alibaba, among others, to end testing and orders of Nvidia's tailored-made products for China, the Financial Times reported, citing people familiar with the matter. Barron's asked for comment from the companies but they couldn't be immediately reached.

Workday jumped over 8% after activist investor Elliott Investment Management disclosed a $2 billion stake in the human relations software company. Elliott praised Workday's CEO Carl Eschenbach and said the company was "a unique software franchise with industry-leading growth potential, best-in-class customer retention and a proven management team."

Tesla was down 1.36% in premarket trading after closing with a gain of 2.8% in the previous session and extending its winning streak to six consecutive days. It has risen 22% over the span, according to Dow Jones Market Data. One reason for the stock's recent gains was CEO Elon Musk's $1 billion purchase of the electric-vehicle maker's shares.

Chinese ETFs and ADRs shined in premarket trading. Baidu, Kingsoft Cloud, Fangdd gained around 7%; CWEB up 5%; YINN up 4%; NIO, PDD Holdings up 3%; Li Auto, Alibaba up over 2%.

Microsoft rose 0.3% after the tech giant said it would spend $30 billion on artificial-intelligence infrastructure and existing operations in the U.K. through 2028, the largest financial commitment the company has made in the country.

FedEx was down 0.5% at $226.58 after being downgraded by Evercore ISI to In Line from Outperform. The analysts also cut their price target on the shares to $243 from $249, saying that "ongoing demand headwinds" were "likely to provide greater risk to near-term EPS estimates." FedEx is scheduled to report earnings on Thursday.

Oracle was up 0.3%. Shares closed up 1.5% on Tuesday after The Wall Street Journal reported that under an emerging deal TikTok's U.S. business would be controlled by an investor consortium, including Oracle, Silver Lake, and Andreessen Horowitz, with the database-software company handling user data at its facilities in Texas.

General Mills, the owner of brands such as Betty Crocker and Cheerios, was down 0.9% after reporting fiscal first-quarter earnings that topped analysts' estimates and reaffirming its fiscal 2026 outlook.

Market News

Traders Boost Bets on Half-Point Fed Rate Cut by Year-End

Bond traders are stepping up options wagers that the Federal Reserve will deliver at least one half-point interest-rate cut across this year’s three remaining policy meetings.

Officials are projected to lower borrowing costs on Wednesday for the first time in 2025, with a quarter-point reduction seen as the most likely decision. But a cooling labor market is leading some traders to hedge against the risk that a souring economic outlook leads to bigger moves in the coming months, even as inflation remains sticky.