Stock market today: Live updates

U.S. stock futures edged higher early Wednesday, reversing earlier losses, as investors monitor rising oil prices and the Federal Reserve‘s latest interest rate decision, due later.

S&P 500 futures gained 0.16% and Nasdaq 100 futures advanced almost 0.1%. Dow Jones Industrial Average futures added 6 points, rising just above the flatline.

West Texas Intermediate crude futures advanced about 3.5% to trade at around $82 a barrel after U.S. Central Command said in a social media post that Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps forces launched “multiple ballistic missiles in an attempted surprise attack on U.S. forces based in the Middle East.” The missiles were successfully intercepted, Centcom said.

Investors are looking ahead to the Federal Reserve‘s interest rate decision and subsequent press conference with Chairman Kevin Warsh on Wednesday afternoon. Fed funds futures traders are pricing in a nearly 70% likelihood that the central bank holds rates steady at the current targe range of 3.5% to 3.75%, according to CME’s FedWatch tool.

Meanwhile, a sell-off in index heavyweight sent South Korea’s Kospi tumbling. The benchmark plunged more than 8%, dragged by index heavyweights SK Hynix and Samsung Electronics, triggering a trading halt. The small-cap Kosdaq similarly plunged over 8%. Japan’s benchmark Nikkei 225 declined 2.2% and the Topix lost 0.61%. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index, bucked the trend, gaining 1.4%. Mainland China’s CSI 300 was down 0.73%.

Ford Motor shares jumped 4% in extended trading after the automaker beat earnings expectations and lifted its 2026 forecast. But Visa shares slipped roughly 1% after the payments giant posted underwhelming guidance.

Traders sent the Dow surging more than 500 points on Tuesday as they geared up for the decision. It marked the blue-chip average’s third straight winning day, with the recent decline in oil prices providing upward momentum.

But the Nasdaq Composite ended in the red for the fifth consecutive session, dragged down by struggling chip stocks. The VanEck Semiconductor ETF (SMH) dropped 3.5% in its fourth straight negative session on Tuesday. This decline brought the fund’s one-week loss to more than 9%.

“We continue to believe markets are placing too much weight on inflation risk and too little weight on the economic consequences of further tightening,” said Julia Hermann, global market strategist at New York Life Investment Management. “A more hawkish communication stance would likely test today’s narrow market leadership more than the broader market.”

Prior to the Fed decision, investors will monitor earnings from Procter & Gamble and Humana coming before the bell. Results from megacap tech bellwethers Microsoft and Meta Platforms, as well as chipmaker Qualcomm, will be out in the afternoon.