Good afternoon and welcome to Markets Desk.
Stocks took a hard hit Wednesday as chipmakers led a broad selloff and the Federal Reserve kept rates on hold at three-point-five to three-point-seven-five percent, signaling no urgency to cut. The S&P five hundred shed one-point-five-two percent, the Dow dropped more than two percent, and the Nasdaq fell over two percent, with semiconductor names doing the heaviest damage across the tape.
The Fed's hawkish hold rippled well beyond equities. Retailers like Walmart, Costco, and Target now face a prolonged high-rate environment that pressures consumer spending and inventory financing alike. With the Fed showing no appetite for relief, discretionary budgets remain under strain heading into the back half of the year.
On the tech side, Microsoft delivered a notable counterpoint to the broader gloom, holding its capital expenditure forecast steady rather than ratcheting it higher as rivals like Google have done. That discipline sent Microsoft shares surging, and it signals a possible maturation in how the largest players are thinking about AI infrastructure commitments — quality of deployment over raw spending volume.
That's the tape. Markets Desk, signing off the floor.
