How the Fed rate decision and Nvidia are pressuring the stock market

Every weekday, the CNBC Investing Club with Jim Cramer releases the Homestretch — an actionable afternoon update, just in time for the last hour of trading on Wall Street. Markets: Stocks were mixed for most of Wednesday but selling pressure in the S & P 500 and Nasdaq picked up at 1 p.m. ET. That’s when Bloomberg reported that the Trump administration was discussing additional export controls on Nvidia chips to China that could restrict sales of its H20 chips. The market didn’t like this story — and with the Oscillator as severely overbought as it was entering the session, any bit of bad news or general uncertainty brought in market sellers. As it relates to Nvidia, we are still holding back from declaring the Club stock’s 15% pullback over the past three days as a buying opportunity until we get more clarity from its hyperscaler customers on their spending patterns and whether demand for its highest performance computing chips will change. Rate decision: The Federal Reserve left its 4.25% to 4.5% target range unchanged at its January Federal Open Markets Committee meeting. At his post-meeting news conference, Fed Chairman Jerome Powell said, “With our policy stance significantly less restrictive than it had been, and the economy remaining strong, we do not need to be in a hurry to adjust our policy stance.” The Fed’s policy statement was viewed hawkishly after the FOMC removed language about inflation progressing toward its goal. Powell said that part was rewritten for clarity but was not meant to convey a change. The Fed cut rates three times last year and left off projecting two more cuts this year. Those potential 2025 cuts have been up for debate as a run of stronger economic data sparked concerns about rekindling inflation. There are also worries that policies from President Donald Trump , who wants the Fed to cut rates, may be inflationary. Powell said he has had “no contact” with Trump. Up next: After Wednesday’s closing bell, we’ll get earnings from Club stocks Meta Platforms and Microsoft . A big focus on the conference calls will be what Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg and Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella think of the Chinese startup DeepSeek and how the commoditization of AI impacts their business models from both a revenue and expense perspective. But when it comes to earnings, the market will be focused on Meta’s ad business, expense outlook, and what products it plans on monetizing next. For Microsoft, the company guided a 31% to 32% constant currency increase in Azure revenue and one key will be reiterating its view of accelerating growth through the back half of its fiscal year. Some other companies reporting tonight are Tesla, IBM, Lam Research, ServiceNow, Western Digital, Whirlpool, WM, and Las Vegas Sands. Before Thursday’s opening bell, we’ll see earnings from Club name Dover. We’ll be looking for continued momentum in its high-growth businesses and listening to what management has to say about their deal-making appetite this year. Other earnings of interest include UPS, Mastercard, Dow Chemical, Blackstone, Southwest Airlines, Comcast, Caterpillar, Thermo Fisher, and Cigna. (See here for a full list of the stocks in Jim Cramer’s Charitable Trust.) As a subscriber to the CNBC Investing Club with Jim Cramer, you will receive a trade alert before Jim makes a trade. Jim waits 45 minutes after sending a trade alert before buying or selling a stock in his charitable trust’s portfolio. If Jim has talked about a stock on CNBC TV, he waits 72 hours after issuing the trade alert before executing the trade. THE ABOVE INVESTING CLUB INFORMATION IS SUBJECT TO OUR TERMS AND CONDITIONS AND PRIVACY POLICY , TOGETHER WITH OUR DISCLAIMER . NO FIDUCIARY OBLIGATION OR DUTY EXISTS, OR IS CREATED, BY VIRTUE OF YOUR RECEIPT OF ANY INFORMATION PROVIDED IN CONNECTION WITH THE INVESTING CLUB. NO SPECIFIC OUTCOME OR PROFIT IS GUARANTEED.

Every weekday, the CNBC Investing Club with Jim Cramer releases the Homestretch — an actionable afternoon update, just in time for the last hour of trading on Wall Street.

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