Early Look

Wednesday, March 19, 2025

U.S. stock futures are slightly higher after finishing lower on Tuesday, with technology companies dragging down the market ahead of the release of the Federal Reserve’s interest-rate decision later today. The Fed will release a new policy statement at 2 p.m. et on Wednesday and though the central bank is expected to leave its benchmark overnight interest rate unchanged in the 4.25%-4.50% range, it will also issue new economic projections from policymakers. Investors are looking to the Fed to provide a catalyst that could make, or break stocks’ attempts to recover from their recent sharp sell-off. Yesterday, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was off around 260 points, or 0.6%, to end near 41,581, the S&P 500 tumbled nearly 1.1% to finish around 5,614 and the tech heavy Nasdaq slumped 1.7%, ending near 17,504 as the Nasdaq 100 posted its 10^th decline of more than 1.5% this year.

In Asian markets, The Nikkei Index dipped -93 points to 37,751, the Shanghai Index fell -3 points to 3,426, and the Hang Seng Index edged higher 30 points to 24,771. In Europe, the German DAX is down about -50 points to 23,328, and the FTSE 100 is down only a few points to 8,700. Russian President Vladimir Putin agreed on Tuesday to U.S. President Donald Trump’s proposal for a month-long halt to strikes against energy infrastructure in Ukraine, a limited ceasefire that Kyiv quickly said it would be willing to consider. But Moscow stopped short of giving the United States the full 30-day cessation of hostilities it had sought. Meanwhile, Volodymyr Zelenskiy will hold a phone call with Donald Trump on Wednesday to discuss the details of US president’s conversation with Vladimir Putin, he tells reporters. Oil prices continue a 3-month drop from January with news that Moscow and Kyiv have agreed to a ceasefire on energy infrastructure.

• The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell -260.32 points, or 0.62%, to 41,581.31.
• The Nasdaq Composite dropped -304.55 points, or 1.71%, to 17,504.12.
• The Russell 2000 Index declined -18.39 points, or 0.89% to 2,049.94.

• 10:30 AM ET                Weekly DOE Inventory Data
• 2:00 PM ET FOMC Rate policy meeting, with Fed Powell presser after; no rate changes expected
• 4:00 PM ET                   Net Long-term TIC flows for January

• Earnings After the Close: AEVA CAPR FIVE NOA WS YY

• Oppenheimer 35th Annual Healthcare MedTech & Services Conference, 3/17-3/20
• Piper 25th Annual Energy Conference, 3/17-3/19, in Las Vegas, NV

• Tesla (TSLA) upgraded to Overweight from Neutral at Cantor Fitzgerald with a $425 price target.
• Waldencast Plc (WALD) Q4 adj EBITDA $11.2Mm vs est. $11.75Mm on revs $72.1Mm vs est. $70.65Mm; guides FY revs +mi-teens % vs est. +20% and adj EBITDA mgn into mid-to-high-teens vs est. 16.55%; sees Q1 revs relatively flat vs est. +21.9%.

• Mosaic (MOS) was upgraded to Overweight from Equal Weight at Barclays and raised tgt to $33.

• Morgan Stanley (MS) plans to cut about 2,000 employees later this month in the first major workforce reduction under Chief Executive Ted Pick, Bloomberg reported, citing people familiar with the matter; cuts will take place across the bank, with the exception of its roughly 15,000 financial advisers.
• StoneCo. Ltd (STNE) Q4 adj. diluted EPS R$2.26, vs. est. R$1.97; Q4 Revenue & other income rose 11% y/y to R$3.61B, vs. est. R$3.58B; Q4 active clients 4.17M, +18% y/y; sees 2025 adj gross profit above 7.05B reais.

• Gilead Sciences (GILD) shares fell after the U.S. health department is reviewing CDC’s HIV prevention division for potential overlap with other agencies and might be at risk of a shut down.
• HealthEquity (HQY) Q4 adj EPS $0.69 vs est. $0.72 on revs $311.8Mm vs est. $306.05Mm; guides FY revs $1.28-1.31B vs est. $1.301B and adj EPS $3.57-3.74 vs est. $3.71.
• Inovio (INO) Q4 EPS ($3.95) vs est. ($0.84) reported on revs $217,756 vs est. $125,500; says current cash, equivalents and short-term investment balances support operations into Q1 2026.
• OmniAb (OABI) Q4 EPS ($0.12) vs est. ($0.11) on revs $10.8Mm vs est. $10.13Mm; sees FY revs $20-25Mm vs est. $14.95Mm and lower cash use vs 2024.
• Pfizer Inc. (PFE) raised about £2.55 billion ($3.3 billion) through the sale of its remaining 7.3% stake in Haleon Plc (HLN), culminating a years-long separation.
• Purdue Pharma filed a new bankruptcy plan on Tuesday, a major step towards finalizing a proposed opioid settlement of at least $7.4 billion after a setback in the U.S. Supreme Court last year.
• Trevi Therapeutics (TRVI) Q4 EPS loss (-$0.11) vs. est. loss (-$0.12); Q4 income from ops (-$12.24M) vs. est. (-$14.2M); announced positive topline data from the Phase 2a RIVER trial in patients with refractory chronic cough; Ended 2024 with $107.6 million in cash, cash equivalents and marketable securities.

• Foxconn, the world’s largest contract electronics maker and Apple’s main iPhone maker, expects its server revenue to surpass its revenue from iPhones within two years, Taiwan’s Central News Agency reported.
• FuboTV Inc. (FUBO) and Rangers Sports Network announced today an agreement that will bring the Texas Rangers’ broadcast network to the sports-first live TV streaming platform. Additionally, Fubo, the streaming leader in Major League Baseball coverage, has been named a Proud Partner of the Texas Rangers.
• Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE) and NVIDIA (NVDA) announced new enterprise AI solutions with NVIDIA from NVIDIA AI Computing by HPE that accelerates the time to value for customers deploying generative, agentic and physical AI.
• Oracle (ORCL) and NVIDIA (NVDA) announced a first-of-its-kind integration between NVIDIA accelerated computing and inference software with Oracle’s AI infrastructure and generative AI services to help organizations globally speed the creation of agentic AI applications.
• Synopsys (SNPS) announced work with NVIDIA (NVDA) to accelerate chip design up to 30x with the NVIDIA Grace Blackwell platform.
• Teradyne Robotics (TER) and its partners are set to unveil a suite of advanced, AI-driven robotics solutions at NVIDIA (NVDA) GTC 2025 March 17-21.