Stock market today: Live updates

Investors can navigate the recent uncertainty around tariffs by looking for companies with stable earnings that won’t see big stock swings in this environment, said David Kostin, chief U.S. equity strategist at Goldman Sachs.

Kostin, who revised his earnings-per-share growth forecast to 9% from 11% for 2025, said the market has rotated pretty significantly towards more defensive oriented stocks, such as health-care and consumer-staples stocks.

“Let’s look for companies where there is insensitivity to some of the big developments that happen in the market,” he said.

That could include names like Intercontinental Exchange, MSCI and Thermo Fisher Scientific, Kostin said on “Squawk on the Street.”

Within the Magnificent 7, he said Apple could be an example of a potential opportunity.

“The focus of a lot of portfolio managers has been on … those companies that are going to be using that [artificial intelligence] technology to amplify their revenues,” Kostin said. “A lot of the companies in the software industry.”

— Michelle Fox

Businesses are expressing rising concerns about President Donald Trump’s tariff threats, according to the Federal Reserve’s “Beige Book” summary of economic conditions released Wednesday.

The economic summary mentioned “tariffs” 45 times, a sharp spike from recent releases and higher than during the president’s previous initiation of tariffs in April 2018, which saw 32 mentions. Much of the commentary in individual regions was similar: “Contacts in most Districts expected potential tariffs on inputs would lead them to raise prices, with isolated reports of firms raising prices preemptively,” the report stated.

Elsewhere, the report, which is released about every seven weeks, characterized economic activity overall as rising “slightly” since the last release Jan. 15, as “employment nudged slightly higher” and prices “increased moderately in most Districts, but several Districts reported an uptick in the pace of increase relative to the previous reporting period.”

— Jeff Cox

The iShares MSCI Emerging Markets ETF (EEM) is trending higher in 2025 and beating out the S&P 500, following a long period of underperformance for international markets.

The EMs-focused fund is up 6% in 2025, while the S&P 500 is now negative by 1.4% year to date.

Rising uncertainties from U.S. President Donald Trump’s trade war has investors looking toward countries with lower export exposure to the U.S.

Major auto stocks jumped Wednesday afternoon after the White House announced a one-month delay on tariffs for industry companies in compliance with the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement.

Stellantis led the way, rallying more than 8%. General Motors and Ford climbed more than 5% and 4%, respectively.

Check out the companies making headlines in midday trading:

• Box — Shares declined more than 3% after the cloud storage company’s top-line guidance fell short of estimates. Box sees first-quarter revenue coming in between $274 million and $275 million, while analysts polled by LSEG expected $279.5 million. Box’s fourth-quarter revenue of $280 million exceeded Wall Street’s consensus of $279 million.
• AeroVironment — Shares fell 5% after the defense contractor provided weak full-year guidance. AeroVironment expects adjusted earnings for the period to come in between $2.92 and $3.13 per share on revenue of $780 million to $795 million. Analysts surveyed by LSEG were looking for $3.45 per share and $821 million in revenue. Earnings and revenue for the fiscal third quarter also missed expectations.
• Kenvue — Shares dropped about 1% after Kenvue settled its proxy fight with activist Starboard Value, adding three new directors to its board. Starboard took a significant stake in Kenvue, formerly the consumer health-care division under Johnson & Johnson, and expressed disappointment in its stock performance and management.

The full list can be found here.

— Hakyung Kim

The sell-off in U.S. stocks isn’t over yet, according to Wolfe Research.

“Finally oversold at 200-day support, this should be the spot where the bulls try to regain some control, but I have a feeling we have some more pain ahead of us in the weeks ahead,” Rob Ginsberg, Wolfe Research managing director and technical analyst, said in a Tuesday note to clients. “Why? We never saw that real flush or panic.”

Ginsberg said that Tuesday’s oversold signals seen on all major U.S. indexes could help momentum, but the damage from the sell-off — and 50% of S&P 500 constituents being in a downtrend — may not be enough encouragement.

— Pia Singh

President Trump’s actions can create a less clear picture for investors, according to Michael Green, chief strategist at Simplify Asset Management.

“The thing that we have emphasized over and over again is that Trump introduces uncertainty,” Green said. “We now are at a point where a single tweet or a single release of information can significantly change the interpretation of what markets look like.”

— Lisa Kailai Han, Alex Harring

Retail traders are getting wary of market volatility, according to new data from JPMorgan.

Individual investors pulled out $1.2 billion from the U.S. equity market in the first hour of Tuesday’s trading session, marking the largest pullback during that time period since JPMorgan’s data tracking this activity began a decade ago.

That is a comedown in sentiment among retail investors, who have become a significant part of the U.S. equity market in recent months.

— Pia Singh

Novo Nordisk is stealing a page from Eli Lilly’s playbook as it unveils a direct-to-consumer online pharmacy to sell its Wegovy anti-obesity medication for less than half its usual price. The stock popped more than 3% on the decision, which is aimed at patients who do not have insurance coverage for the pricey prescription. It also fights back against less-expensive copycats sold by compounding pharmacies.

Novo Nordisk shares are up about 6% year to date, but the stock has been hurt by competition from Lilly and the compounded alternatives. Shares are down about 27% over the past year.

Lilly’s shares were up nearly 1% on Wednesday, and have gained almost 19% year to date.

— Christina Cheddar Berk

Without a last-minute deal to stave off tariffs, the risk of a recession is rising, according to Ed Yardeni, president and chief investment strategist of Yardeni Research. He said he expects there is now a 35% chance of a recession and bear market, and he sees less likelihood of a market meltup/meltdown scenario, putting the odds of this case at 10%, down from 25%.

“Trump 2.0’s head-spinning barrage of executive orders, firings, and tariffs have rattled investors, shaken confidence in the economy, and inflamed inflation fears,” he wrote in a note to clients. “The pain of these decisive actions is being felt now, while the benefits of his other policies are further off.”

Yardeni still expects the base-case scenario, which he dubs the “Roaring 2020s,” has the biggest odds of unfolding. This prediction, with odds of 55% unchanged, assumes the trade war does not escalate, the economy remains resilient and the growth of the tech sector continues to supercharge productivity and GDP growth.

— Christina Cheddar Berk

Huntington Ingalls soared 10% early Wednesday after President Trump on Tuesday night in an address to a joint session of Congress pledged to revive military shipbuilding and create a special White House office to oversee the expansion.

“To boost our defense industrial base, we are also going to resurrect the American shipbuilding industry, including commercial shipbuilding and military shipbuilding,” Trump told Congress. “And for that purpose, I am announcing tonight that we will create a new office of shipbuilding in the White House and offer special tax incentives to bring this industry home to America, where it belongs. We used to make so many ships. We don’t make them anymore very much, but we’re going to make them very fast, very soon. It will have a huge impact.”

Other defense prime contractors also rose Wednesday in sympathy. General Dynamics rose as much as 2.6%, Northrop Grumman advanced 1.6% and Lockheed Martin added 1.5%.

Service-sector activity in the U.S. expanded at a solid pace in February, countering recent worries about an economic slowdown, the Institute for Supply Management reported Wednesday.

The ISM services index posted a reading of 53.5, representing the share of businesses reporting expansion during the period. That was 0.7 points higher than the January level and better than the 52.9 forecast from the Dow Jones consensus. A reading above 50 indicates expansion.

Within the survey, nearly all the subindexes were positive. New orders increased 0.9 points, employment rose 1.6 points, inventories jumped 3.1 points and order backlogs surged 6.9 points. All except imports were in expansion territory for the month.

The prices index rose to 62.6, the first time it has been above 60 since March 2023, indicating some inflation pressures.

— Jeff Cox

The Dow and S&P 500 were both little changed as Wednesday’s trading day kicked off. The Nasdaq Composite ticked 0.3% higher.

— Alex Harring

An overnight rally in stock futures largely fizzled out Wednesday morning after ADP’s private payroll data showed another worrying sign for the economy.

Futures tied to the Dow and S&P 500 both traded near flat shortly before 9 a.m. ET, well off highs. Nasdaq 100 futures also significantly pared back gains, last trading just 0.2% higher.

— Alex Harring

Private-sector job creation slowed to a crawl in February, fueling concerns of an economic slowdown, payrolls processing firm ADP reported Wednesday.

Companies added just 77,000 new workers for the month, well off the upwardly revised 186,000 in January and below the 148,000 Dow Jones consensus estimate, according to seasonally adjusted figures from ADP.

The total was the smallest increase since July and comes at a time when worries are rising that economic growth is slowing and worries brew that President Trump’s tariff plans will spark another round of inflation. ADP said annual pay rose 4.7% in February, the same as the prior month.

— Jeff Cox

Abercrombie & Fitch shares tumbled more than 5% before the bell on Wednesday as guidance worried analysts.

The retailer said it expects sales to rise between 3% and 5% for the 2025 fiscal year, under the consensus growth forecast of 6.8% from analysts polled by LSEG. Abercrombie also predicted a range of $1.25 to $1.45 for earnings per share in the current quarter, which missed the $1.97 penciled in by Wall Street.

That data overshadowed a stronger-than-anticipated earnings report for the fourth quarter.

Wednesday’s release comes during a rough patch, as Abercrombie shares have plunged more than 35% in 2025. That marks a turn after the stock soared more than 285% and 69% in 2023 and 2024, respectively.

— Alex Harring

Two exchange-traded funds tracking key trade partners hit by President Trump’s tariffs climbed in Wednesday’s premarket amid rising hopes for a compromise.

The iShares MSCI China ETF popped more than 2% before the bell. The iShares MSCI Mexico ETF (EWW) added 1.5%.

— Alex Harring

Campbell’s shares tumbled more than 5% in Wednesday’s premarket after posting weak revenue and guidance.

The Goldfish and Rao’s parent posted $2.69 billion in revenue for the second fiscal quarter, while analysts polled by FactSet expected $2.74 billion.

For the full year, the company told investors to anticipate earnings per share in a range between $2.95 and $3.05, excluding items, missing the consensus forecast of $3.13 from Wall Street. That soft outlook comes despite the company posting 74 cents in earnings per share for the second quarter, two cents higher than analysts penciled in.

Campbell’s shares have dropped more than 3% in 2025.

— Alex Harring

Shares of General Motors, Ford and Stellantis rose in premarket trading on the hope that President Trump would scale back tariffs on Canada and Mexico. The tariffs would hit automakers particularly hard.

General Motors and Ford shares gained 3.9% and 1.8%, respectively, while Stellantis jumped 5.7%.

Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick said Tuesday that Trump will “probably” announce a compromise with both of the U.S. trading partners as early as Wednesday. Imports from Canada and Mexico are now taxed at 25%, according to Trump’s new sweeping tariff plans. 

Shares of these automakers declined in the previous session after the American Automotive Policy Council — a lobbying group that represents all three — gave a statement saying Trump should exempt from the tariff increase companies that comply with the 2020 United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement signed during his first term in office.

— Pia Singh

European stock markets opened higher Wednesday, with Germany’s DAX index jumping 2.8% after the parties expected to form the next government agreed to a deal that could lead to increased spending on infrastructure and defense.

France’s CAC 40 and the U.K.’s FTSE 100 were 1.8% and 0.5% higher, respectively, with the pan-European Stoxx 600 index up 1.2%.

The Cboe Volatility Index, known as the VIX, has jumped above the 20 threshold during each of the last seven sessions as Trump’s trade war ramps up.

It is the longest streak the index has traded above the 20 level on an intraday basis since mid-October. The VIX looks at prices of options on the S&P 500 to track the level of fear on Wall Street.

The “flight to safety across financial markets” in reaction to the U.S. tariffs and weak economic data could turn out to be an overreaction if President Donald Trump changes his mind, “but the downside risks to our upbeat forecasts for U.S. financial markets have increased,” according to Capital Economics in London. “[T]he ‘Trump trade’ and the wider optimism around the U.S. economy and financial markets has faded in short order.”

The latest round of tariffs take the effective U.S. tariff rate up to about 12%, the highest since the late 1940s, and the next scheduled round means the effective rate “may well rise much further,” wrote Jonas Goltermann, deputy chief markets economist.

Downbeat economic numbers; “a broader reassessment of the near-term economic outlook in the U.S.;” and policy uncertainty together with weaker confidence among businesses, consumers and investors all combine to create “headwinds for equity markets,” Goltermann said.

— Scott Schnipper

These are the stocks moving the most in after-hours trading:

• AeroVironment — The manufacturer of unmanned aircraft tanked 16%. AeroVironment issued weak guidance for its full-year results, calling for adjusted earnings of $2.92 to $3.13 per share on revenue of $780 million to $795 million.
• CrowdStrike — The cybersecurity stock tumbled 9%. The company sees its full-year revenue coming in between $4.74 billion and $4.81 billion, which encompasses the $4.77 billion consensus prediction, per FactSet.
• Ross Stores — The off-price retailer inched higher by less than 1%. Fourth-quarter earnings surpassed estimates, coming in at $1.79 per share, versus analysts’ call for $1.66 per share, per LSEG.

Read the full list of stocks moving here.

— Lisa Kailai Han