On Wednesday Eastern Time, the three major US stock indices closed mixed as investors lacked clear trading direction amid complex economic data and policy uncertainties.

Reports indicate that President-elect Trump is considering declaring a national economic emergency to provide a legal basis for imposing high, broad tariffs on other countries.

The minutes from the Federal Reserve's December monetary policy meeting showed that nearly all decision-makers believe that the upside risk to the inflation outlook has increased due to a series of policies proposed by Trump. Officials believe that if the inflation rate remains high, the Federal Reserve may maintain rates or ease monetary policy at a slower pace.

Charlie Ripley, a senior investment strategist at Allianz Investment Management, stated: "Inflation is an important and unpredictable economic variable for 2025, with many factors potentially introducing risks that could lead to inflation rising again."

On that day, the yield on the 10-year U.S. Treasury bond rose to 4.691%, while the yield on the 30-year U.S. Treasury bond reached 4.931%, the highest level since November 1, 2023.

A significant rise in bond yields may have unstable effects on the stock market. On one hand, it will increase borrowing costs for the entire economy; on the other hand, as the risk-free yield from holding Treasury bonds rises, riskier assets such as stocks may be suppressed.

Amid fears in the market that the USA may impose additional fees on trading partners as Trump is set to take office later this month, investors remain on edge.

Thomas Hayes, Chairman of Great Hill Capital LLC, stated: "If broader tariffs are implemented, there may be a short-term impact on inflation. The Federal Reserve will closely monitor Trump's policy actions, and government spending cuts may alleviate some of the inflationary pressures brought on by the tariff policy."

In memory of former US President Jimmy Carter, the US stock market will be closed for one day today, and the bond market will close early at 2 PM Eastern Time.

Market Dynamics

At the close, the Dow Jones Industrial Average increased by 106.84 points, or 0.25%, to close at 42635.20 points; the Nasdaq fell by 10.80 points, or 0.06%, to 19478.88 points; and the S&P 500 Index rose by 9.21 points, or 0.16%, to 5918.24 points.

The USA sector ETFs showed mixed results, with the Medical ETF rising by 0.52%, the Internet Stocks Index ETF up over 0.4%, the Financials ETF and the GF CSI All-Share Index Consumer Discretionary ETF rising by about 0.3%, while the Global Technology Stocks Index ETF fell by nearly 0.1%, and the Penghua Guozheng Semiconductor Chip ETF dropped by 0.71%.

Among the 11 sectors of the S&P 500 Index, 8 sectors rose, with the Consumer Staples Sector up 0.46%, the Financial Sector up 0.31%, the Medical Care Sector up 0.53%, the Information Technology Sector up 0.09%, and the Communications Services Sector down 0.75%.

Performance of Popular Stocks

Large technology stocks had mixed performance, with Meta down 1.16%, Google A down 0.79%, NVIDIA down 0.02%, whereas Amazon closed up 0.01%, Tesla rose 0.15%, Apple increased 0.2%, and Microsoft up 0.52%.

eBay rose by about 10% as Meta announced it will display listings from competitor eBay on its platform Facebook Marketplace, in response to the EU's antitrust ruling.

California wildfires are raging, and strong winds in the forecast may make them difficult to control, leading to a 10% drop in shares of power equipment provider Edison International, marking its worst single-day performance since 2020.

NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang frankly stated that 'very useful' quantum computers may still be decades away, which caused a collapse in quantum computing concept stocks, with IonQ down 39%, Quantum Computing down 43%, and Rigetti Computing plunging 45%.

The Nasdaq Golden Dragon China Index closed down 0.67%, with most China Concept Stocks falling, Xpeng down over 5%, NIO and Kingsoft Cloud down over 4%, and Bilibili down over 3%; TAL Education rose over 5%, and NetEase rose over 2%.

Company news

[California's Insurance Market Is on Thin Ice as Wildfires May Intensify Insurers' Exit Tide]

The economic losses from the wildfires to Los Angeles are still uncertain, but their impact on California's troubled insurance market could be huge. Experts say that the recent increase in the size and frequency of wildfires has led to rising losses, and the wildfires this week may accelerate the tide of insurers exiting California. Nancy Watkins, an insurance expert and chief actuary at consulting firm Milliman, stated, 'The California insurance market has always been on thin ice.' As homeowners begin to file claims, insurers covering a large number of residences in Southern California may face depletion of reserves, forcing them to abandon customers, suffer investor penalties, or exit the state market. Sreedhar Maniam, a senior director of industry research and analysis at AM Best, pointed out that if insurers continue to leave California, already high premiums will soar even further, making it even harder for people to obtain insurance.

[Blackrock to Lay Off About 1% to Reunite Resources and Strategy]

Blackrock informed its employees that the company will cut about 1% of its workforce. The group completed acquisitions exceeding 25 billion dollars last year, thereby expanding its business in the private market asset and data sectors. Blackrock's President Rob Kapito and COO Rob Goldstein stated in a memo to employees on Wednesday that the plan is to realign resources and strategy through measures such as layoffs. The company has over 21,000 employees, which means about 200 people will be affected.

[Intel: Will continue to commit to the independent graphics card market]

At the ongoing CES 2025, Intel's new co-CEO Michelle Johnston Holsos stated in the keynote speech: "We are very committed to the independent graphics card market and will continue to make strategic investments in this direction." Previously, Intel had hinted during the earnings call that investment in independent graphics cards was "unnecessary."

[Apple, Google, and Samsung will accept Matter certification for smart home products]

At the ongoing CES 2025, the Connectivity Standards Alliance (CSA) announced that Apple, Google, and Samsung will all accept certification from its "Works With" program, stating that Apple has begun to accept the testing results of Matter devices for Works With Apple Home from the Alliance Interop Lab, while Google and Samsung will take similar measures for their respective Works With Google Home and Works With SmartThings certifications later this year, highlighting the credibility and reliability of the alliance's testing program.

Editor/Jeffy