U.S. stocks rallied on Wednesday after the Federal Reserve kept rates unchanged as widely expected, and the central bank and investors continue to gauge how President Donald Trump's tariff policies affect the economy and inflation.

Market Snapshot

The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 383.32 points, or 0.92%, to 41,964.63, the S&P 500 gained 60.63 points, or 1.08%, to 5,675.29 and the Nasdaq Composite gained 246.67 points, or 1.41%, to 17,750.79.

Market Movers

Nvidia - Nvidia was up 1.8% a day after CEO Jensen Huang made a string of announcements at the chip maker’s annual AI GTC conference. This included the debut of a more powerful version of its Blackwell AI chips, two AI desktop computers, an expanded autonomous-driving partnership with General Motors, and new AI models for robots. Nvidia shares fell 3.4% on Tuesday, while GM rose 1.3%.

Tesla - Tesla rose 4.7% to $235.86 after tumbling 5.3% on Tuesday and 4.8% on Monday. Analysts at Cantor Fitzgerald upgraded the stock to Overweight from Neutral and left their price target at $425. Coming into Wednesday, shares had declined 42% this year, in part because of weaker sales and heightened competition, worries that CEO Elon Musk’s political activities have been turning off buyers, and politically motivated protests at Tesla facilities.

Musk appeared on Fox News’s Hannity program on Tuesday and addressed the protests. “It’s really come as quite a shock to me that there’s this level of…hatred and violence from the [political] left,” said Musk. “Tesla is a peaceful company, we’ve never done anything awful.”

Boeing - Boeing jumped 6.8% after Chief Financial Officer Brian West said at an investor conference that the airplane maker’s first quarter was tracking in line with expectations. West also said Boeing doesn’t see a material near-term impact from tariffs on the company’s supply chain.

Intel - Intel shares dropped 6.9%. The fall came after Paul Liu, a board member of TSMC, refuted recent speculation that TSMC is considering the purchase of Intel’s foundry business. This clarification was reported by DigiTimes.

Autodesk - Autodesk rose 3.2% after The Wall Street Journal reported that activist investor Starboard Valuewas preparing to wage a proxy fightat the design-software maker. Starboard holds a stake of more than $500 million in Autodesk. The Journal, citing people familiar with the matter, said Starboard intends to nominate a minority slate of director candidates ahead of Autodesk‘s’s annual meeting.

Gilead Sciences - Gilead Sciences fell 2.5% after the Journal reported the Health and Human Services Department was weighing plans to drastically cut thefederal government’s funding for domestic HIV prevention. The Journal report cited people familiar with the matter. Gilead has a portfolio of HIV prevention treatments including Biktarvy and Descovy.

HealthEquity - HealthEquity tumbled 17.1%. The health-savings account custodian said it expects adjusted earnings in fiscal 2026 of $3.57 to $3.74 a share, a range whose midpoint of which is below analysts’ expectations of $3.71. The company also said it anticipates fiscal 2026 revenue of $1.28 billion to $1.31 billion, while the consensus call on Wall Street is $1.3 billion.

General Mills - General Mills, the packaged-food company, was down 2.1% after itsfiscal third-quarter sales fell 5% from a year earlier to $4.84 billion, missing analysts’ forecasts of $4.96 billion. The company said the decline was “driven largely by greater-than-expected retailer inventory headwinds and a slowdown in snacking categories.” General Mills also cut its sales outlook for fiscal 2025.

Williams-Sonoma - Williams-Sonoma fell 3.5% even though the home-goods retailer reported fiscal fourth-quarter adjusted earnings and revenue that beat analysts’ estimates. The company said it expects fiscal 2025 revenue in the range of a decline of 1.5% to growth of 1.5% because the year will have one fewer week than fiscal 2024.

Signet Jewelers - Signet Jewelers posted fourth-quarter adjusted earnings that topped analysts’ estimates, boosting the stock 17.3%. The jewelry retailer said it would be closing more than a tenth of its mall locations.

Market News

Fed Holds Rates Steady, Signals Two Cuts in 2025

The Federal Reserve held interest rates steady Wednesday for the second meeting in a row and maintained a prior prediction for two rate cuts at some point this year.

What the central bank did change, however, was its outlook on inflation and economic growth amid uncertainties stemming from President Trump's plans for an aggressive slate of new tariffs on top of new duties already imposed on China, Canada, and Mexico.

Fed officials now see inflation staying higher this year than previously estimated and economic growth going lower than prior predictions.

Tariffs to Delay Inflation Progress, Too Soon to Gauge Impact, Fed's Powell Says

U.S. Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell said on Wednesday that President Donald Trump's tariff increases would delay progress in bringing down inflation this year, but the Fed's base case is that tariff-related price impacts will be transitory, working through the economy quickly.

Powell told a news conference after the Fed held rates steady that it was too soon to determine whether the Fed needed to look through the inflationary impact from higher tariffs. He said it would be challenging to determine how much of any goods price inflation is attributable to tariffs and how much is due to other factors.

But he noted that business and household surveys were turning up more and more concerns about inflation and short-term inflation expectations, although longer-term inflation expectations are "mostly well-anchored."