China’s Xi speaks with Trump by phone, discusses Taiwan and bilateral ties
Investing.com - U.S. stock futures are hovering around both sides of the flatline on Wednesday, following a sell-off in the previous session sparked by investors balking at frothy equity valuations. The U.S. Supreme Court is scheduled to hear oral arguments about President Donald Trump’s use of emergency economic powers to impose sweeping tariffs. Advanced Micro Devices posts a quarterly rise in sales and profit, but the high cost of rapidly expanding its chip production dents income at its crucial data center segment. Drugmaker Novo Nordisk flags lower growth expectations for its all-important obesity treatment, while Bitcoin briefly slides below the $100,000 level.
1. Futures mixed
U.S. stock futures were searching for direction, after equities on Wall Street sank in the previous session as investors fretted over the sustainability of sky-high stock valuations.
By 02:39 ET (07:39 GMT), the Dow futures contract had gained 29 points, or 0.1%, S&P 500 futures had dropped by 13 points, or 0.2%, and Nasdaq 100 futures had slipped by 89 points, or 0.4%.
The main U.S. averages slumped on Tuesday, with analysts pointing to a potential crush of profit-taking, particularly in stocks exposed to the artificial intelligence boom which have surged throughout much of this year.
"[S]tocks suffered broad selling [...] as sentiment soured on tech at a time when investors don’t have much appetite to rotate into other parts of the market," analysts at Vital Knowledge said in a note, adding the fall was "very much driven by ’vibes’ [...] instead of actual news."
Financial markets in Asia later felt these convulsions on Wednesday, although a bout of selling later showed signs of abating. Tokyo’s stock index slipped down from a record high notched on Tuesday, yet clawed back some of these losses. South Korean shares slumped as well before paring much of the declines.
"The risk mood has darkened a little this week, with some sizeable corrections emerging in some equity markets," analysts at ING including Chris Turner and Francesco Pesole said.
Further fogging up the economic picture has been a dearth of fresh official data out of the United States during a prolonged federal government shutdown. This has deprived investors and policymakers alike of figures used to both attain a clearer assessment of the state of the world’s largest economy and calibrate interest rates. In the absence of the data, markets have turned to alternative sources, such as a today’s private jobs report for October from payrolls processor ADP.
2. Supreme Court to hear oral arguments over legality of Trump tariffs
President Donald Trump’s sweeping tariff policies will likely be in the spotlight once again this week, when the Supreme Court hears oral arguments around the legality of the levies on Wednesday.
The case has been brought before the Supreme Court after lower courts ruled that the president had surpassed his authority by employing emergency federal measures to enact the elevated tariffs on a host of countries.
Whether the court’s 6-3 conservative majority finds in favor of Trump’s use of the 1977 International Emergency Economic Powers Act, or IEEPA, remains uncertain, although the Supreme Court has repeatedly sided with Trump in other key decisions so far this year.
Trump has become the first U.S. president to employ IEEPA as legal backing for imposing broad-based tariffs, arguing that a $1.2 trillion U.S. goods trade deficit in 2024 and American deaths from the painkiller fentanyl have constituted national emergencies.
Should the tariffs be struck down, Trump would be left without a major tool he has utilized in negotiations with foreign nations throughout his second term in office.
Still, U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent has said he expects the high court to find in favor of the IEEPA-based duties. Bessent added that, in the event it does not, the White House could take advantage of other tariff authorities, including one which allows for 15% tariffs for 150 days to address trade imbalances.
3. AMD earnings
Shares of Advanced Micro Devices dropped in extended hours trading, as a spike in sales and profit at the AI chipmaker was overshadowed by darkening sentiment around elevated tech valuations.
AMD, whose shares have more than doubled in value so far in 2025, has been positioning itself as a rival to AI-darling Nvidia in the race to provide the computing power needed to underpin the nascent technology -- a trend that CEO Lisa Su told investors has driven "unprecedented growth opportunities."
The firm has also received a significant boost from a range of investors, including ChatGPT-maker and AI industry figurehead OpenAI as well as the U.S. Department of Energy.
Data center revenue, which folds in sales of AI chips, surged by 22% to $4.3 billion during the September quarter. A top-line return of $9.25 billion for the period surpassed analysts’ average estimates, according to LSEG data cited by Reuters. Income of $1.96 billion, or $1.20 per share, topped projections too.
For the current quarter, revenue is seen at $9.6 billion, plus or minus $300 million, above expectations as well.
Yet investors remained focused on the underlying contours of AMD’s profitability, specifically a 14% drop at its data center division. AMD, like Nvidia, has been racing to ramp up its chip production to meet runaway demand, pushing costs higher in the process.
4. Novo Nordisk lowers full-year profit outlook
Novo Nordisk has lowered its annual profit and sales guidance, in a setback for new CEO Mike Doustdar, who has been tasked with re-solidifying the Danish pharmaceutical giant’s position in the burgeoning market for weight-loss drugs.
Sales growth has decelerated this year, with pressure from peer Eli Lilly and compounded drug options eating away at Novo’s dominance in obesity drugs. In 2024, Novo rode the popularity of its Wegovy obesity drug to become Europe’s most valuable business. But, so far this year, the stock has dropped by 50%.
The company said it now anticipates that full-year operating profit will grow between 4% to 7% in constant currencies, versus prior guidance of 4% to 10%.
Doustdar, who has been at the helm of the firm since August, noted that the decreased outlook was because of "lower growth expectations" for its GLP-1 class of weight management and diabetes treatments. He added that Novo is aiming to "accelerate on all fronts" to better compete in an increasingly "dynamic" and "competitive" market.
Shares of the firm were slightly higher in early European trading.
5. Bitcoin dips below $100,000
Bitcoin fell on Wednesday, briefly dipping below the key $100,000 level, mirroring a broader sell-off in risk-driven markets.
The world’s largest crypto traded down 2.2% at $101,770.3 by 03:55 ET. It had earlier in the session fallen as low as $99,010.06, its weakest level since mid-June. Bitcoin also entered a bear market, having declined over 20% from its early-October record high of $126,186.0.
Broader crypto prices fell as well, extending recent declines.
Partially weighing on sentiment was data from analytics firm CoinGlass which showed over $1.27 billion in leverage positions across crypto were wiped out earlier this week. A bulk of these liquidations were of long positions, as traders betting on more price gains in Bitcoin were hit by steep losses in the digital token.