Futures tracking the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq indexes were pinned at record highs on Wednesday, buoyed by increasing confidence that the Federal Reserve could restart its monetary policy easing cycle next month.

Market Snapshot

At 7:50 a.m. ET, Dow E-minis were up 124 points, or 0.28%, S&P 500 E-minis were up 12.75 points, or 0.2% and Nasdaq 100 E-minis were up 56.5 points, or 0.24%.

Pre-Market Movers

CoreWeave - CoreWeave, the artificial-intelligence cloud vendor, reported a wider-than-expected second-quarter loss but revenue of $1.21 billion that rose from $395.4 million a year earlier and beat expectations of $1.08 billion. “We are scaling rapidly as we look to meet the unprecedented demand for AI,” said Chairman and CEO Michael Intrator. The company said it anticipates full-year revenue of between $5.15 billion to $5.35 billion, higher than consensus of $5.05 billion consensus. Shares, however, fell 8.8%.

Circle - Circle shares sank 1.6% in premarket trading on Wednesday, after the second-largest stablecoin issuer and a group of shareholders including co-founder and Chief Executive Officer Jeremy Allaire announced an offering to sell a combined 10 million shares.

CAVA Group - Cava Group was falling 24.1% after reporting second-quarter same-restaurant sales growth of 2.1%, well below analysts’ estimates for growth of 6.1%, and cutting its full-year growth forecast on the sales metric to 4% to 6% from previous guidance of 6% to 8%. CEO Brett Schulman told Dow Jones Newswires that consumers were “dealing with a lot of headwinds, a lot of fog and uncertainty.”

Intapp - Intapp soared 27.4% after the AI cloud company reported fiscal fourth-quarter earnings that topped analysts’ estimates and announced a buyback of $150 million of stock.

Webtoon Entertainment - Webtoon Entertainment jumped 36.7% after the online-comic platform reached a deal with Walt Disney to put brands like Marvel and Star Wars on Webtoon’s mobile format. Webtoon also reported quarterly earnings that beat expectations on both the top and bottom lines.

Sapiens International - Sapiens International rose 43.7% to $42.4 after agreeing to be acquired by private equity investor Advent for $2.5 billion, or $43.50 a share. The software company said the transaction is expected to close in the fourth quarter of 2025 or the first quarter of 2026.

Luminar - Luminar shares plummeted 18.3% after the automotive technology company reported disappointing second-quarter results and significantly lowered its full-year guidance, citing slower vehicle production ramps and the winding down of non-core businesses.

Rigetti Computing - Shares of Rigetti Computing fell 1.4% after the quantum computing company reported asecond-quarter lossof $39.7 million, wider than the year-earlier’s loss of $12.4 million, while revenue of $1.8 million fell 41% from a year earlier. The latest period included $22.8 million of noncash losses related to the company’s warrants.

Denison Mines - Denison Mines shares sank 8.8% after saying it is offering $250M of convertible senior unsecured notes due 2031, with an underwriters option to purchase up to an additional $37.5M aggregate principal amount.

Centrus Energy - Centrus Energy intends to offer $650M of convertible senior notes due 2032 in a private offering. The shares dropped 5.3%.

Global-E Online - Global-E Online reported a 28% year-over-year increase in revenue for the second quarter of 2025, exceeding analyst expectations and achieving GAAP profitability with a net profit of $10.5 million. The cross-border e-commerce company has raised its full-year guidance, signaling confidence in continued growth. Global-E Online shares jumped 9% in premarket trading.

Lumentum - Lumentum Holdings, the provider of optical and photonic products, swung to a profit in its fiscal fourth quarter and adjusted earnings of 88 cents a share beat analysts’ estimates of 81 cents. Revenue in the period jumped 56% to $480.7 million and topped expectations of $470.5 million. The company said it expects “continued strong demand” for its AI data center and long-haul solutions, “giving us confidence in surpassing $600 million in quarterly revenue by June 2026 or earlier.” The stock was up 3.2%.

Innoviz Technologies - Innoviz Technologies reported second quarter EPS of $-0.090, in line with the analyst estimate of $-0.090. Revenue for the quarter came in at $9.75M versus the consensus estimate of $10.75M. The shares sank 7.1%.

H&R Block - H&R Block was down 1.9% in premarket trading. The tax preparation company posted fiscal fourth-quarter adjusted earnings that missed analysts’ estimates though revenue of $1.11 billion slightly beat analysts’ expectations of $1.075 billion.

Chinese ADRs - Chinese ADRs rallied in premarket trading on Wednesday, as tame US inflation data fuelled rate-cut expectations and corporate earnings prospects brightened. Direxion Daily FTSE China Bull 3X Shares rose 7%; NetEase and Bilibili rose 6%; Li Auto rose 4%; Alibaba, Tencent Music, and NIO rose 3%; Baidu, JD.com, and XPeng rose 2%.

Crypto stocks jumped in premarket trading on Wednesday.

180 Life Sciences surged another 55% in premarket trading after soaring 206.6%. Peter Thiel, the billionaire tech investor and co-founder of PayPal and Palantir, is part of an investor group that holds a 7.5% stake in 180 Life Sciences, which is rebranding as ETHZilla, an Ethereum-focused corporate treasury vehicle, according to a new SEC disclosure.

DeFi Development shares surged 22% after the company reported second quarter earnings that highlighted significant growth in its Solana holdings and staking operations.

Upexi rose 19% in premarket trading. BitMEX co-founder Arthur Hayes has joined Solana treasury company Upexi as the first member of its newly established advisory committee, the company announced Tuesday.

ALT5 Sigma rose 8% in premarket trading. ALT5 Sigma Corporation, supported by Eric Trump and Donald Trump Jr., announced Tuesday it had closed a $1.5 billion registered direct offering and private placement to kick off a treasury strategy focused on WLFI, the native token of World Liberty Financial.

BIT Mining rose 16%; CEA Industries rose 12%; BitMine Immersion Technologies rose 5%; SharpLink Gaming rose 4%; GameSquare rose 4%; Coinbase rose 1%.

Market News

Bessent Hints Fed Should Be Open to a Half-Point Rate Cut

US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent suggested that the Federal Reserve ought to be open to a bigger, 50 basis-point cut in the benchmark interest rate next month, after having skipped a move at the last meeting.

“The real thing now to think about is should we get a 50 basis-point rate cut in September,” Bessent said in an interview on Fox Business Tuesday. He highlighted how, two days after the Fed left rates unchanged July 30, revised data showed weaker job growth for May and June than official figures had previously indicated.

The Fed “could have been cutting in June, July” had it had the revised figures in hand at the time, Bessent said. He was speaking hours after the latest inflation report, which he said showcased that economists had misread the likely effect of tariffs.

White House Says It's Working Out Legality of Nvidia and AMD China Chip Deals

The Trump administration is still working out the details of its 15% export tax on Nvidia and AMD and could bring deals of this kind to more companies, the White House's Karoline Leavitt said Tuesday.

"Right now it stands with these two companies. Perhaps it could expand in the future to other companies," said Leavitt, the White House's spokesperson.

"The legality of it, the mechanics of it, is still being ironed out by the Department of Commerce, and I would defer you to them for any further details on how it will actually be implemented," she continued.

CoinDesk Owner Bullish Prices IPO Above Range at $37/Share

Bullish, a cryptocurrency exchange operator that counts billionaire Peter Thiel amongst its backers, said its U.S. initial public offering was priced above its indicated range at $37 per share.

The offering raised $1.11 billion for Bullish based on 30 million shares sold and valued the company at $5.41 billion.

Bullish was earlier aiming to price its offering between $32 and $33 per share.