US stocks rose on Wednesday in a sign that AI fears are waning, as investors waited for a fresh batch of earnings and for Federal Reserve minutes to give insight into interest-rate cuts.

The S&P 500 (^GSPC), the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite (^IXIC), and the Dow Jones Industrial Average (^DJI), which is less exposed to tech, all picked up roughly 0.2% after the major US gauges closed Tuesday with modest gains.

Technology stocks are recovering some composure after a turbulent stretch that saw software names in particular take a bruising. But while the pressure is easing, investors are still weighing the long-term impact of AI on business models and corporate competition, and whether AI investments will pay off.

Attention is turning to the Fed's January meeting minutes later Wednesday for insight into policymakers’ thinking, as markets price in at least two rate cuts this year. The watch is on for signs of AI fallout in the jobs market and on inflation, as energy prices rise. That lays the ground for the Personal Consumption Expenditures index release on Friday, the macro highlight of the week, to shed light on price pressures.

On the earnings calendar, DoorDash (DASH), eBay (EBAY), and Analog Devices (ADI) report results Wednesday.

MSG (MSGS) stock rose as much as 10% in premarket trade on Wednesday after the company said it was exploring splitting up the New York Knicks and New York Rangers, which it owns under the same corporate umbrella, Madison Square Garden Sports Corp.

The split would create two publicly traded companies. Both separate entities would also include minor league affiliates of each franchise.

“Both the Knicks and Rangers are premier teams in their respective leagues, with storied histories and large and passionate fan bases,\\" said Jim Dolan, exec. chairman and CEO of the company. \\"We believe this proposed transaction would provide each company with enhanced strategic flexibility, its own defined business focus, and clear characteristics for investors.”

The Knicks are currently in third place in the Eastern Conference, a half-game behind the Boston Celtics. The Rangers are in last place in the Eastern Conference.

The pace of construction of new homes in the US rose to a five-month high in December as the housing market tries to show some signs of life with interest rates leveling out.

The number of new single-family homes under construction in December hit an annualized rate of 1.4 million homes, up 6.2% from November and ahead of forecasts for an annualized rate of 1.32 million homes, according to data from the Census Bureau. This pace of building, however, is still 7.3% below December 2024.

This report followed Tuesday's read on homebuilder confidence from the NAHB, which showed sentiment fell by another point to 36 this month, the lowest reading since September.

In an email on Wednesday, Alexandra Brown, North America economist at Capital Economics, wrote:\\"Even though homebuilders are still benefiting from the modest decline in mortgage rates over the past few months, this is unlikely to last. We expect the Fed to cut only once more this year.

\\"With almost three cuts currently priced into markets, financial conditions should re-tighten later this year as fewer cuts are realised,\\" Brown added.

\\"As a result, we do not expect the uptick in housing starts to be sustained throughout this year.\\"

Oil prices rose on Wednesday as traders priced in continued geopolitical risk and stringent sanctions after peace talks between Russia and Ukraine appeared to collapse after only two hours.

Futures on Brent crude (BZ=F), the international pricing benchmark, rose over 2% to trade around $69, while those on US benchmark West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude (CL=F) picked up a slightly stronger 2.5% to trade around $63.80.

In comments after the talks ended, Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky said the Russian delegation made the negotiations \\"difficult\\" and accused Russia of intentionally delaying progress toward a deal that could end the war between the two countries, according to Reuters.

Russia's chief negotiator, Vladimir Medinsky, also described the US-led talks, held in Geneva, Switzerland, as \\"difficult\\" in comments after the negotiations ended.

The oil market has, since the Russian invasion of Ukraine began four years ago, priced in an increasingly high-risk profile around disrupted Russian oil and gas exports. Surprise sanctions from the US Treasury late in 2025 against major Russia oil companies Rosneft and Lukoil have only furthered those tensions.

At the same time, traders are also closely watching the Middle East. While Iran's foreign minister said talks between Tehran and Washington had reached a potential framework for a deal on Iran's nuclear program, the X account for Ayatollah Ali Khamenei spent Tuesday posting incendiary comments about the deal, and Iran partially closed the Strait of Hormuz for several hours for naval military exercises.

The Strait of Hormuz is seen as Iran's biggest lever to pull in any conflict, as the strait sees roughly 20 million barrels of petroleum products per day traverse its waters.

Analog Devices (ADI) stock rose 6% before the bell on Wednesday following the release of its second quarter earnings, which beat analysts' estimates. The company cited strong demand from its industrial and data ‌center customers as the artificial intelligence boom continues ​to drive semiconductor sales.

Reuters reports:

The company forecast second-quarter revenue of $3.5 billion, plus ‌or minus $100 million, ⁠compared with the analysts' average estimate of $3.23 billion, according to LSEG ⁠data.

Surging investment in data center infrastructure for generative AI workloads is helping offset a ​challenging macroeconomic ​and geopolitical backdrop, ​supporting demand for ‌Analog Devices' semiconductors as hyperscalers expand capacity.

\\"While the macro and geopolitical backdrop remains challenging, our revenue outlook for the second quarter reflects a new high-watermark for ADI, underscoring ‌our strong execution against ​cyclical and secular growth ​tailwinds,\\" Analog Devices ​CFO Richard Puccio said.

Read more here.

The US stock market, typically considered the engine of the global economy, has struggled to find its footing through the first months of 2026, even as the rest of the world has surged ahead.

As a result, US stocks are off to their worst start to the year since 1995 relative to the global market, according to data from Goldman Sachs.

Yahoo Finance's Jake Conley reports:

While the S&P 500 (^GSPC), tracking the largest US companies, has fallen by 1% since the start of the year, an index tracking market returns throughout the rest of the global economy (ACWX) has returned 8%. The trend holds true over the past year, too, where the ex-US index has risen by 30%, triple the 10% return from the US over the same period.

And in an environment where geopolitical risk increasingly comes from inside the US — whether from the Trump administration's tariff regime, comments about an annexation of Greenland, or other moves — investor attention has turned toward the rest of the world.

\\"For global investors, the re-pricing of [the US dollar] and erosion of the spread between US's [equity risk premium] and others was brutal\\" in 2025, Viktor Shvets, the head of global desk strategy at Macquarie, wrote in a recent note to clients.

At the same time, even as the US market has far underperformed the rest of the world, US stocks just keep getting more expensive.

Read more here.

Divided fortunes for Apple (AAPL) stock and the Nasdaq 100 (^NDX) show the iPhone maker has been somewhat insulated from AI fear-induced volatility in techs despite its relatively high valuation, Bloomberg reports.

From Bloomberg:

It’s been nearly 20 years since Apple Inc. was this untethered from its tech peers, giving investors an appealing alternative to the artificial intelligence-fueled volatility that has gripped most other corners of the stock market in recent weeks.

Apple’s 40-day correlation to the Nasdaq 100 Index tumbled to 0.21 last week, the lowest since 2006, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

Its correlation with the benchmark has been on the decline since May, when it reached 0.92, as Apple’s decision to mostly sit out the AI arms race has turned it into an outlier compared with many of its rivals. (A correlation of 1 means the two securities are moving in perfect unison, while a reading of -1 signals they are moving opposite each other.)

“Apple’s lack of correlation is 100% a positive right now,” said Art Hogan, who helps oversee $25 billion as chief market strategist at B. Riley Wealth. “We’re in an environment of AI whack-a-mole, where investors are so nervous about what will be disrupted next they’re shooting first and asking questions later.”

Read more here.

You might recall that shares of transportation logistics player CH Robinson (CHRW) were run over last week out of the blue. The company had no earnings report. Execs weren't presenting at an investment banking conference.

Instead, the stock was swept up into the AI sell-off after Algorhythm Holdings (RIME) said it had created software that made transport logistics way more efficient.

I think the sell-off was very overdone, and in no way reflective of CH Robinson's impressive fundamentals. The company is at the forefront of using AI in its business. In fact, it has stripped a ton of costs from its business thanks to its first-mover advantage in AI.

You can find out what CH Robinson CEO Dave Bozeman has to say about it, live on the Opening Bid show at 9:45 a.m. ET today. I expect Bozeman to fiercely defend his company, as he should.

Tune in here or on the Yahoo Finance mobile app.

Shares of The New York Times Co. (NYT) popped in premarket trading after Berkshire Hathaway (BRK-B, BRK-A) made a new multibillion-dollar investment in the publisher.

The fourth quarter move was seen as a vote of confidence in the NYT's strategy from Berkshire, which dumped holdings in dozens of newspapers in 2020. It's also one of Berkshire's last with Warren Buffett as CEO, after he handed the reins of the conglomerate to Greg Abel in January.

From Bloomberg:

Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway Inc. slashed its stake in Amazon.com (AMZN) by more than 75% in the fourth quarter, while also building a stake in the New York Times Co., his last new bet as chief executive officer of the conglomerate.

Omaha, Nebraska-based Berkshire acquired 5.1 million shares of the media publishing company in the three months through December, a stake worth $351.7 million at yearend, according to a regulatory filing Tuesday.

... Also in the fourth quarter, Berkshire continued trimming its stakes in Bank of America Corp. (BAC) and Apple Inc. (AAPL), bringing them to 7.1% and 1.5%, respectively. Buffett started cutting those positions in 2024.

Read more here.

Palo Alto (PANW) stock fell 7% before the bell on Wednesday after the company cut its full-year earnings outlook on Tuesday.

Western Digital (WDC) stock rose 2% during premarket hours on Wednesday following its annoucement that it will raise $3.17 billion by selling its stake in Sandisk (SNDK). Sandisk stock fell by 2% during premarket trading today.

SSR Mining (SSRM) stock rose by 7% before the bell on Wednesday after reporting higher fourth-quarter adjusted earnings and revenue. The mining company said it expects to see a 10% increase in its gold-equivalent production of 450,000 to 535,000 ounces from its Marigold, CC&V, Seabee, and Puna operations.

Shares of Nvidia (NVDA) rose in premarket trading as investors assessed fresh moves from the AI chip leader, including a boosted India AI build-out and the sale of its stake in chip tech firm Arm (ARM).

The highlight is news that Meta (META) has agreed to buy millions of Blackwell and Rubin GPUs alongside other Nvidia processors in the next few years, deepening their multiyear, multi-generational partnership.

Yahoo Finance's Daniel Howley reports:

The plan calls for Meta to use the products within its data centers for both training and running AI models.

Nvidia didn't reveal a dollar amount for the expanded deal, though it said that Meta will roll out the chips in its own data centers and lean on those available via Nvidia Cloud Partners. Nvidia's Cloud Partner program includes companies like CoreWeave (CRWV) and Crusoe, which host Nvidia chips for other companies to rent and use.

... In addition to the GPUs, Nvidia says Meta is rolling out its first large-scale Grace CPU-only servers with plans to launch Vera CPU-only systems in 2027. These would be similar to more traditional severs Meta operates using Intel chips and wouldn't include any GPUs.

That kind of move could prove problematic for Intel (INTC) and AMD (AMD), which have dominated the CPU server space for decades.

Read more here.

Japan plans to invest up to $36 billion in US oil, gas, and critical mineral projects, part of Tokyo's $550 billion commitment under the trade agreement it struck with President Trump last year.

“Our MASSIVE Trade Deal with Japan has just launched!” Trump posted on social media on Tuesday. “The scale of these projects are so large, and could not be done without one very special word, TARIFFS.”

Japan's Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi said that the projects will help build more resilient supply chains through partnerships in crucial areas for economic security.

Bloomberg News reports:

“We believe this initiative is fully aligned with its core objectives: promoting mutual benefits between Japan and the United States, ensuring economic security, and fostering economic growth,” she wrote.

The most significant investment is a natural gas facility in Ohio that’s expected to generate 9.2 gigawatts of power, according to a statement from US Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, a massive project which Trump described as “the largest in History.”

Japan is expected to invest up to $33 billion in the gas plant, which will be led by SoftBank Group Corp. subsidiary SB Energy, according to a US Commerce Department fact sheet outlining the investments. Japan’s Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry listed SoftBank Group as the company involved in the project.

Read more here.

AP Finance reports:

California regulators said on Tuesday that Tesla (TSLA) had stopped misleading drivers about the safety of its cars and so has decided not to suspend its license to sell in the state for 30 days.

The decision by the California Department of Motor Vehicles comes after Elon Musk's electric vehicle maker was found by an administrative law judge last year to have misled drivers about the ability of Tesla cars to drive themselves in its use of the terms “Autopilot” and “Full Self-Driving.”

The judge had recommended that regulators suspend Tesla's license to sell cars for 30 days, but the regulators gave the company a 90-day window to make changes. They decided it had done that sufficiently to fix the deceptive marketing.

Tesla now uses the term “supervised” in references to its Full Self Driving and has stopped using Autopiolot in its marketing in the state.

Read more here.