08:23 AM EST, 01/29/2025 (MT Newswires) -- The broad market exchange-traded fund SPDR S&P 500 ETF Trust ( SPY ) was up 0.1% and the actively traded Invesco QQQ Trust (QQQ) advanced 0.3% in Wednesday's premarket activity, as investors await the Federal Reserve's interest rate decision and assess strong earnings from semiconductor companies.

US stock futures were mixed, with S&P 500 Index futures flat, Dow Jones Industrial Average futures slipping 0.03%, and Nasdaq futures gaining 0.03% before the start of regular trading.

US mortgage applications fell 2% in the week ended Jan. 24 as both refinancing and purchase activity declined, while the average 30-year fixed mortgage rate held steady at 7.02%, the Mortgage Bankers Association said Wednesday.

The international trade in goods, and the retail inventories and wholesale inventories bulletins, all for December, will be released at 8:30 am ET.

The weekly EIA petroleum status report posts at 10:30 am ET, followed by the Atlanta Fed's Survey of Business Uncertainty for December posts at 11 am ET.

The Federal Open Market Committee will make its rate announcement at 2 pm ET, followed by a press conference by Fed Chair Jerome Powell at 2:30 pm ET.

In premarket action, bitcoin was up by 1.2% and the cryptocurrency fund ProShares Bitcoin Strategy ETF (BITO) was 1.3% higher.

Power Play:

Financial

Financial Select Sector SPDR Fund (XLF) slipped 0.04%. Direxion Daily Financial Bull 3X Shares ( FAS ) was down 0.1%, while its bearish counterpart Direxion Daily Financial Bear 3X Shares ( FAZ ) was flat.

Virtu Financial ( VIRT ) shares were up 5.8% pre-bell Wednesday after the company reported higher Q4 adjusted earnings and revenue.

Winners and Losers:

Health Care

The Health Care Select Sector SPDR Fund ( XLV ) retreated 0.3%. The Vanguard Health Care Index Fund ( VHT ) was up 1.3% while the iShares US Healthcare ETF ( IYH ) was inactive. The iShares Biotechnology ETF (IBB) was flat.

Danaher ( DHR ) stock was down 5.5% premarket after the company reported lower-than-expected Q4 adjusted earnings and said it expects Q1 non-GAAP core revenue to decline low-single digits year-over-year.

Consumer

The Consumer Staples Select Sector SPDR Fund ( XLP ) was up 0.3%, while the Vanguard Consumer Staples Fund (VDC) was down 0.04%. The iShares US Consumer Staples ETF ( IYK ) , the Consumer Discretionary Select Sector SPDR Fund ( XLY ) , the VanEck Retail ETF ( RTH ) , and the SPDR S&P Retail ETF ( XRT ) were inactive.

Alibaba ( BABA ) shares were up 3.5% pre-bell after the company's Cloud unit released its enhanced Qwen 2.5-Max AI model, saying it outperformed DeepSeek-V3, GPT-4o, and Llama-3.1-405B across several benchmarks.

Technology

Technology Select Sector SPDR Fund (XLK) advanced 0.3%, and the iShares US Technology ETF ( IYW ) was 0.1% higher, while the iShares Expanded Tech Sector ETF ( IGM ) was flat. Among semiconductor ETFs, SPDR S&P Semiconductor ETF ( XSD ) was inactive, while the iShares Semiconductor ETF (SOXX) rose by 1.4%.

Automatic Data Processing ( ADP ) shares were up 2.1% in recent Wednesday premarket activity after the company reported higher fiscal Q2 adjusted earnings and revenue.

Industrial

Industrial Select Sector SPDR Fund ( XLI ) advanced 0.2% and the Vanguard Industrials Index Fund ( VIS ) gained 0.9%, while the iShares US Industrials ETF ( IYJ ) was inactive.

Otis Worldwide ( OTIS ) stock was down 2% before the opening bell continuing from its 1.9% fall at the prior close. The company reported higher Q4 financial results but with adjusted earnings trailing analysts' estimates.

Energy

The iShares US Energy ETF ( IYE ) was inactive, while the Energy Select Sector SPDR Fund ( XLE ) was up by 0.1%.

W&T Offshore ( WTI ) stock was up 1% before Wednesday's opening bell after the company said it repurchased about 98% of its outstanding 11.75% senior second lien notes due 2026 and repaid $114.2 million in term loan debt.

Commodities

Front-month US West Texas Intermediate crude oil declined 0.5% to $73.44 per barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Natural gas fell 1.8% to $3.41 per 1 million British Thermal Units. United States Oil Fund ( USO ) lost 0.8%, while the United States Natural Gas Fund ( UNG ) was 1.3% lower.

Gold futures for April retreated 0.04% to $2,793.60 an ounce on the Comex, and silver futures gained 0.4% to reach $30.99 an ounce. SPDR Gold Shares ( GLD ) were up 0.1%, while the iShares Silver Trust ( SLV ) was 0.3% higher.