Chip stocks carried Wall Street again as the Fed meeting opened

A handful of AI chip stocks held the U.S. market up on Tuesday while most of it drifted lower, the Federal Reserve began a two-day meeting, and the busiest stretch of earnings season got under way. The numbers here are an early-afternoon snapshot from the Associated Press; the close will differ.

The tape at midday

As of 12:59 p.m. Eastern, the S&P 500 was up 0.6% and within 1.3% of the record it set earlier this month, the Nasdaq composite was up 1.2%, and the Dow was down 39 points, or 0.1%, according to AP's Stan Choe. Most stocks in the S&P 500 fell. The index rose anyway because the gainers were the largest companies in it.

That followed a Monday close with the Dow up 0.28% to 52,361.58, the S&P 500 up 0.7% to 7,676.77 and the Nasdaq up 0.82% to 26,169.38, per MoneyCheck, after two straight losing weeks for both the S&P and the Nasdaq.

Why chips led twice

Monday's catalyst was Anthropic's public IPO filing, which showed about $16.3 billion in revenue for the six months ended June and sent the iShares Semiconductor ETF up nearly 3%. Tuesday's was financing. After Monday's close, Bank of America, Blackstone, Citi and Morgan Stanley announced $63 billion in committed financing for a special purpose vehicle that will buy Broadcom XPU accelerators and networking equipment and lease them to Anthropic, with deliveries from calendar 2027. The three banks arrange the first-lien debt, Blackstone is the sole committed second-lien provider, and Broadcom backs the vehicle with residual value support equal to the first lien, according to Investing.com.

Broadcom rose 4% on Tuesday and Nvidia 1%, which AP says were the two biggest forces lifting the S&P 500. CoreWeave jumped 7.3%, though it has been swinging hard in both directions for days. AI stocks had been falling for weeks on worries about how expensive it is getting to borrow for data centers and chips, which is exactly the problem a bank-financed leasing vehicle is designed to answer. The rebound has not undone the damage: MoneyCheck notes the semiconductor ETF is still about 25% below its high and down 13% this month.

Earnings moved the rest

UPS posted third-quarter revenue of $22.9 billion, up 6.7%, with adjusted earnings of $1.69 a share, and raised its full-year targets to about $92.6 billion in revenue, $8.75 billion in adjusted operating profit, $7.28 in adjusted earnings per share and $6.1 billion in free cash flow, according to the release it filed with the SEC. It also raised fourth-quarter guidance to about $25.7 billion in revenue. U.S. domestic daily volume was lower than a year ago, at 15.6 million pieces versus 16.2 million, but revenue per piece rose 6.1%. CEO Carol Tomé said the company enters the holiday season with the most automated network it has ever run.

JetBlue rose 18.8% even after reporting a larger summer loss than analysts expected. AP reports its CEO expects sustained operating profit next year and at least $1 of earnings per share in 2028; the stock had been down almost 48% for the year. Royal Caribbean gained 8.4% on a stronger summer and a raised full-year forecast.

Boeing fell 9.4% after a larger-than-expected quarterly loss and word that its 737 production ramp is running behind schedule. Hilton dropped 3.4% on weaker summer revenue and a profit forecast whose midpoint missed, citing the Middle East. Sherwin-Williams fell 2.6% on a profit miss, with high mortgage rates weighing on housing and raw material costs up. General Motors rose 5.5% after saying it will move its listing from the New York Stock Exchange to Nasdaq, a step that could make it eligible for the Nasdaq-100.

The Fed, oil and yields

The Fed's decision lands Wednesday. Wall Street widely expects a hold, per AP; MoneyCheck cites fed funds futures at about a 90% probability of no change and 10% odds of a hike. The context is unusual: the Fed raised rates last month for the first time in three years to slow inflation, and the 10-year Treasury yield sat at 5.00% on Tuesday, unchanged from late Monday.

Brent crude eased 1.1% to $109.51 a barrel. MoneyCheck notes Brent had hit its highest level since April on Friday on reports about possible U.S. and Israeli action against Iran after the midterm elections. A separate AP item on Tuesday said U.S. consumer confidence improved in October when economists had expected a decline.

Overseas, Seoul rose 3.1% and Shanghai fell 1.3%, with European and other Asian markets mixed.

What is still coming this week

This is the peak week of the season, with 163 S&P 500 companies reporting, per MoneyCheck. Alphabet and Microsoft report Wednesday, the same day as the Fed, and Amazon reports later in the week. For anyone budgeting for 2027, the combination is the whole story in one calendar: the hyperscalers' capital spending plans, the cost of money, and whether the chip rally is a rebound or a bounce will all be answered within about 48 hours.