US stock futures held steady on Wednesday — a potentially pivotal day for markets that brings a Federal Reserve interest-rate decision, a data deluge, and a flood of earnings highlighted by Microsoft (MSFT) and Meta (META).

Dow Jones Industrial Average futures (YM=F) wavered along the flat line, while those on the S&P 500 (ES=F) nudged 0.1% higher. Contracts on the tech-heavy Nasdaq 100 (NQ=F) ticked up roughly 0.3%. The major gauges fell on Tuesday, leading the S&P 500 to snap its six-day record streak.

Stocks are in a holding pattern as investors wait for the Fed's decision on interest rates, due at 2 p.m. ET at the end of its two-day meeting. With the central bank is expected to hold rates steady, Wall Street will closely watch the Fed's "dot plot" given internal divisions over the path of policy.

Focus is also on Chair Jerome Powell's remarks for signals on potential easing later this year, as President Trump presses for a rate cut.

Just hours before that, the market gets the latest reading on ADP private payrolls — an indicator closely watched for signs of slowing by some Fed policymakers to make the case for a rate cut. The July print will serve as an appetizer for the key monthly jobs report on Friday.

A fresh reading on second-quarter GDP and pending home sales in June are other highlights on Wednesday's packed economic docket.

Meanwhile, investors fielded a further flood of earnings from major companies, with Humana (HUM), and Kraft Heinz (KHC) getting a positive reception before the bell.

Wall Street is looking to after-hours reports from Microsoft and Meta to rejuvenate markets, after a mixed bag of earnings weighed on stocks on Tuesday. The companies are the first of the "Magnificent 7" group to report, and both are contending with growing scrutiny over whether their eye-popping AI investments are paying off.

Looming ahead is Trump's Friday deadline for trade partners to strike deals with the US or face blanket tariff rates.

Read more: The latest on Trump's tariffs

US-China trade talks wrapped up on Tuesday without an extension of the current tariff pause between the two, but Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said Trump would make a "final call" on the matter soon.

Yahoo Finance's Hamza Shaban digs into the tariffs story for Whirlpool (WHR) in today's Morning Brief:

For companies that can weather price increases for long-term structural benefits, the tariffs can in fact act like a competitive reset. Whirlpool's disappointing results but full-throated support of new levies illustrate a key story this earnings season: Some executives are championing the tariffs.

A look at Whirlpool's stock chart after the company reported on Tuesday doesn't scream All-American victory. Quite the opposite. As Asian rivals stockpiled refrigerators and ranges, washers and dryers, in a bid to front-run looming tariffs and boost sales, Whirlpool lost out. And the stock plummeted after the appliance maker cuts its full-year earnings forecast and dividend, pointing to competition and flagging consumer sentiment.

But in the long run, Whirlpool sees itself emerging as a winner in the latest trade battle. Wielding a significant US manufacturing footprint, the Michigan-based company said the new tariffs will boost its prospects as foreign competitors will eventually have to raise prices.

“We continue to expect the administration's tariff policies will help level the playing field for US-based producers and, in effect, make Whirlpool a net winner,\\" said CFO Jim Peters during the earnings call Tuesday.

Read more here on why Whirlpool is looking past tariff setbacks.

Economic data: Federal Reserve monetary policy decision; GDP annualized; ADP private payrolls (July); (second quarter); Pending home sales, (June); MBA Mortgage Applications (July 25); Minnesota Chicago PMI (July)

Earnings: Meta (META), Microsoft (MSFT), Arm (ARM), Altria (MO), Carvana (CVNA), Ford (F), Generac (GNRC), Harley Davidson (HOG), Hershey (HSY), Humana (HUM), The Kraft Heinz Company (KHC), Qualcomm (QCOM), Robinhood (HOOD)

Here are some of the biggest stories you may have missed overnight and early this morning:

Fed set to hold rates steady, defying Trump's call for a cut

Whirlpool is championing the tariffs that have hammered its quarter

Meta to report Q2 earnings amid AI investment push

Microsoft to report Q4 earnings as Wall Street looks for continued AI growth

Deal-hunting Americans are putting corporates on watch

Trump eyes 25% India tariff, US-China truce in the balance

Wall Street's riding high on relief, not results: Strategist

Tesla signs $4.3B battery deal, cuts reliance on China

Yahoo Finance's Dan Howley has previews of both Meta (META) and Microsoft (MSFT), whose reports come Wednesday.

For Meta, it's all about the AI hiring and spree:

On Friday, CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced former OpenAI (OPAI.PVT) researcher Shengjia Zhao, who helped develop the company’s ChatGPT model, has been named founder and chief scientist of Meta’s Superintelligence Lab.

Prior to Zhao, Meta invested $14.3 billion in Scale AI (SCAI.PVT) and hired its CEO, Alexandr Wang. The company also hired former GitHub CEO Nat Friedman and Safe Superintelligence CEO Daniel Gross. Zuckerberg also poached Apple's (AAPL) head of AI foundation models, Ruoming Pang, according to Bloomberg.

Meta is also spending on AI data centers, with Zuckerberg saying last week that the company is investing hundreds of billions of dollars to build several multi-gigawatt data centers around the country. One such facility, called Hyperion, will eventually scale up to support up to 5 gigawatts, or 5 billion watts, of capacity.

And Microsoft remains chugging along, its stock up more than 20% this year. Dan says Alphabet's (GOOG, GOOGL) well-received results last week could bode well for Microsoft, as investors focus on AI-driven sales gains:

For the quarter, Wall Street is anticipating Microsoft to report adjusted earnings per share (EPS) of $3.37 on revenue of $73.89 billion, according to Bloomberg analyst consensus estimates. The company saw adj. EPS of $2.95 and revenue of $64.72 billion in the same period last year.

Read more on Meta and Microsoft.

Here are some top stocks trending on Yahoo Finance in premarket trading:

Seagate Technology (STX) shares fell more than 6% on Wednesday before the bell after the company's first-quarter revenue forecast fell below Wall Street estimates on Tuesday. Seagate earnings were hurt by weak demand for its storage devices amid ongoing uncertainty in the personal computer market.

Avis (CAR) stock fell 5% premarket following the car rental company's earnings results on Tuesday. It was also announced that Alphabet (GOOG, GOOGL)-owned company Waymo plans to launch a robotaxi service next year in Dallas and will partner with Avis Budget Group to manage its fleet of all-electric autonomous Jaguar I-Pace vehicles.

Sarepta Therapeutics (SRPT) stock rose 10% in premarket trading on Wednesday following the news that it will now start shipping its top-selling muscular dystrophy therapy, Elevidys, after the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) reversed its request for a voluntary pause late Monday.

Shares of Starbucks (SBUX) rose in premarket despite a quarterly profit miss after sales in the coffee chain's US outlets proved healthier than expected.

Yahoo Finance's Brooke DiPalma reports:

Starbucks reported a sixth straight quarterly drop in US same-store sales on Tuesday as the company continues to grapple with an uncertain consumer environment and its CEO's turnaround efforts.

US same-store sales fell 2%, in line with the prior quarter's drop but less than the 2.5% drop that had been forecast. That was driven lower by a 4% decline in comparable transactions. Wall Street expected a sharper 4.5% decline.

Starbucks \\"fixed a lot and done the hard work on the hard things to build a strong operating foundation and based on my experience of turnarounds, we are ahead of schedule,\\" CEO Brian Niccol, who previously led the turnaround at Chipotle, said in the release. ...

Adjusted earnings per share came in at $0.50, missing forecasts for $0.65 per share. Revenue rose 5% to $9.5 billion, more than the $9.3 billion that had been forecast.

Read more here.

Markets across Asia saw tentative gains despite uncertainty in the aftermath of US-China trade talks. The two-day talks between the two economic powerhouses to discuss tariffs did not yield hard results, but representatives from both nations expressed positivity about the dialogue.

Reuters reports:

Hong Kong's Hang Seng index shed 0.1.2% to 25,213.15, while the Shanghai Composite index gained 0.2% to 3,616.30.

Tokyo's Nikkei 225 index fell less than 0.1% to 40,654.70. Gains for electronics companies were offset by losses for major exporters like Toyota Motor Corp. and Honda Motor Co.

Australia's S&P/ASX 200 climbed 0.6% to 8,756.40 and in South Korea, the Kospi gained 0.7% to 3,254,47.

Taiwan's Taiex rose 1.1%. In India, the Sensex added 0.3%.

On Tuesday, U.S. stock indexes edged back from their record levels as a busy week for Wall Street picked up momentum. The S&P 500 fell 0.3% to 6,370.86, while the Dow Jones Industrial Average lost 0.5% to 44,632.99.

Read more here.

Samsung Electronics (005930.KS) has seen the benefits of a wave of market optimism following the unexpected announcement of a chipmaking deal with Tesla (TSLA) worth $16.5 billion.

Bloomberg reports:

Stock has risen 9% since news about the agreement on Monday, bringing Samsung’s gains in July to over 20% and putting the stock on track for its best month in more than four years. Samsung accounted for more than half of July’s gains in Korea’s stock benchmark Kospi, underscoring growing investor enthusiasm.

The Tesla deal is significant as it marks a shift for the ailing foundry business — from relying on captive internal orders to deeper external engagements, Citigroup analysts said in a report. A successful implementation would boost Samsung’s prospects for generating more external clients and validate its investment in a US plant.

“I think market basically paid not even zero value — negative value — on foundry business so far, and suddenly market checked and said ‘Okay! they still can do’,” said Young Jae Lee, senior investment manager at Pictet Asset Management Ltd., who has Samsung as the biggest position in his $831 million fund.

Once considered a serious challenger to Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co., Samsung has steadily ceded ground in the global chip race. The company, which supplies its own memory chips and produces semiconductors for clients, has struggled to fill its foundry capacity as major customers such as Apple Inc. exited and its high-bandwidth memory (HBM) business has gone woefully off track.

Read more here.

Oil prices held gains overnight Tuesday after jumping 3% Monday, with supply issues in focus. Trump's continued pressure on Russia over the Ukraine war has raised concerns over how economic sanctions will impact the Slavic state's ability to produce oil at the current rate.

Reuters reports:

Brent crude (BZ=F) futures rose 14 cents, or 0.19%, to $72.65 a barrel by 0048 GMT while U.S. West Texas Intermediate (CL=F) crude climbed 2 cents, or 0.03%, to $69.23 a barrel.

Both contracts had settled at their highest since June 20 on Tuesday.

On Tuesday, Trump said he would start imposing measures on Russia, including 100% secondary tariffs on its trading partners, if it did not make progress on ending the war within 10-12 days, moving up an earlier 50-day deadline.

\\"Effective secondary 100% tariffs would lead to a dramatic shift in the oil market. A number of key buyers of Russian oil would likely be reluctant to continue purchases, particularly large U.S. trading partners,\\" ING analysts said in a note.

Read more here.