Gold Rallies To $5,300, Memory Stocks Go Wild: What’s Moving Markets Wednesday?
Wall Street posted modest gains on Wednesday, while gold extended its relentless rally, shattering records above $5,300 an ounce ahead of the Federal Open Market Committee meeting.
The yellow metal is now up more than 22% this month, putting it on track for its strongest monthly performance since January 1980. Meanwhile, silver rose nearly 3% to $114 per ounce, eyeing its best-performing month ever after surging 59% year-to-date.
U.S. equities opened higher but lost momentum as the session wore on. The S&P 500 briefly touched a fresh all-time high near 7,000 before slipping about 30 points in midday New York trading. The Nasdaq 100 outperformed, rising 0.4% to break above 26,000 and move closer to its October record of 26,182.
Chipmakers Led Gains
Memory and storage stocks soared after Seagate Technology Inc. (NASDAQ:STX) crushed Wall Street expectations and raised full-year guidance, citing a worsening global supply crunch and fully booked orders amid surging AI demand.
Seagate shares surged nearly 20%, lifting peers Sandisk Corp. (NASDAQ:SNDK) and Western Digital Corp. (NASDAQ:WDC), which climbed 7.3% and 9%, respectively. Micron Technology Inc. (NASDAQ:MU) added more than 5%.
Sandisk has now spiked by more than 1,330% since its February 2025 IPO, underscoring the severity of the memory and storage shortage.
The Fed is widely expected to keep interest rates unchanged at 3.50%–3.75%, signaling no urgency to further ease borrowing costs.
Still, attention is focused on Chair Jerome Powell‘s press conference, coming just weeks after the opening of a criminal investigation into the Fed’s building renovation project—an issue Powell has framed as another attempt by …
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