01:13 PM EST, 01/29/2025 (MT Newswires) -- US equity indexes fell ahead of earnings from three mega-caps in the so-called Magnificent-7 group of companies and Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell's views on the path ahead for interest rates.

The Nasdaq Composite fell 1% to 19,536.3, with the S&P 500 down 0.6% to 6,030.5 and the Dow Jones Industrial Average 0.3% lower at 44,733.7. Leading intraday decliners were technology and real estate. Financials, utilities, and consumer staples were among the gainers.

Gold futures rose less than 0.1% to $2,769.31 an ounce and silver futures jumped 1.8% to $31.45.

Microsoft ( MSFT ) , Meta Platforms ( META ) , and Tesla (TSLA), which together are said to account for about 12% of the S&P 500, will release quarterly earnings after the bell on Wednesday.

Wedbush Securities estimates $2 trillion of artificial intelligence-related capital expenditure over the next three years. It fully expects Meta Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg to "double down" on the $60 billion to $65 billion cap-ex forecast for this year while his counterpart at Microsoft ( MSFT ), Satya Nadella, will reiterate the software giant's $80 billion target for the metric in their respective earnings calls.

"DeepSeek is a great LLM model that is competitive with Meta's Llama and OpenAI's ChatGPT...the comparisons end there," Wedbush analysts, including Daniel Ives, said in a note.

The Fed will announce its interest rate decision on Wednesday afternoon. According to the FedWatch Tool, the central bank will almost certainly leave its target rate unchanged at 4.25% to 4.5%. Powell will hold a press conference at 2:30 pm.

"The Fed probably won't issue a 'dovish' tone based on the lower-than-expected inflation data for December," Thierry Wizman, global forex and rates strategist at Macquarie, said in a note Wednesday. "Rather, the recent flurry of universal tariff-talk coming just before the Fed meets means that sufficient uncertainty over the path of inflation persists, and an endorsement of the 'dots'' two rate cuts won't happen."

Most US Treasury yields rose after trading mixed earlier in the session. The benchmark 10-year stood at 4.55%, recovering all the decline in yields. The two-year rate rose 1.1 basis points to 4.22%.

In company news, ASML's (ASML) US-listed shares advanced 4.1% after the Dutch chip equipment manufacturer issued an upbeat Q1 sales outlook on the back of better-than-expected Q4 results.

F5 (FFIV) reported fiscal Q1 non-GAAP earnings and net revenue late Tuesday, beating the average analyst estimates compiled by FactSet. For fiscal 2025, the company raised its revenue and EPS growth expectations. Its shares rose 11% intraday, the top performer on the S&P 500.

T-Mobile US ( TMUS ) reported better-than-expected Q4 results, aided by its postpaid phone subscriber additions ahead of Wall Street's projections. Shares jumped 7.3%, among the biggest gainers on the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq.

West Texas Intermediate crude oil futures dropped 1.4% to $72.74 a barrel.