Markets Digest First Warsh FOMC Press Conference 18/06/2026

 HOT stories for today

Market wrap:

• The Dow pulled back Wednesday after briefly touching a fresh intraday record, as weakness in megacap technology and SpaceX weighed on sentiment. The blue-chip index fell 507 points, or 1%, to close at 51,492.55 after hitting its third straight intraday high earlier in the session. The S&P 500 lost 1.2%, while the Nasdaq Composite declined 1.3%. Microsoft, Meta, Alphabet and Amazon all finished lower, adding pressure to the broader market. SpaceX also fell for the first time since its Nasdaq debut, cooling some of the IPO-driven enthusiasm. Chip gains helped limit the damage, with Intel and Micron among the stronger names in the sector. In Asia, markets opened mixed, though South Korea’s Kospi and Japan’s Nikkei reached fresh records. 
• The Fed left rates unchanged at 3.5% to 3.75% at Kevin Warsh’s first meeting as chair. Investors also digested the White House’s release of the 14-point U.S.-Iran draft agreement aimed at extending the Strait of Hormuz ceasefire. With markets closed tomorrow for Juneteenth, the usual options expiration will take place today, adding another layer of potential volatility. On top of that, it is triple witching, meaning stock options, index options and index futures all expire in the same session. Traders now turn to earnings from Accenture and Kroger, along with leading indicators, the Philadelphia Fed Index and weekly jobless claims.

Warsh opens new Fed era

• The Federal Reserve kept interest rates unchanged at 3.5% to 3.75% on Wednesday, but new Chair Kevin Warsh delivered enough surprises to unsettle markets. The biggest shift came from the dot plot. Warsh confirmed he did not submit his own rate forecast, consistent with his long-standing criticism of forward guidance. Still, the committee’s projections showed a more hawkish tilt, with the median dot pointing to one-quarter-point hike later this year. Warsh also signaled a broader institutional reset, announcing five task forces focused on Fed communications, the balance sheet, data sources, productivity and jobs, AI and transformative technologies, and the central bank’s inflation framework. His tone on inflation was notably firm.
• Warsh repeatedly emphasized “price stability” and described the Fed’s commitment to controlling inflation as clear and unanimous, helping push the 2-year Treasury yield sharply higher. The post-meeting statement was also dramatically shorter, running just 130 words compared with the longer boilerplate statements of the Powell era. Investors took it as a sign that Warsh intends to make Fed communication leaner, less predictable and less dependent on explicit guidance. For markets, the message was clear: rates stayed unchanged, but Fed watching just became much harder.

Stocks on the move:

• Robinhood (HOOD): Shares jumped 8.8% to $105.20 after the company announced a 10% workforce reduction and cited record June trading volumes across equities, options and prediction markets.
• Moderna (MRNA): Shares surged 11.6% to $61.80 ahead of an FDA advisory committee meeting on MFLUSIVA, Moderna’s mRNA flu vaccine for adults aged 50 and older.
• Nebius (NBIS): Shares rose 6% to $280.91 as investors continued to chase GPU capacity, cloud infrastructure and hyperscaler alternatives, though valuation concerns remain after the stock’s huge run.
• Salesforce (CRM): Shares fell 2%, putting the stock on pace for a record 12th straight decline and pushing it to its lowest level since early 2023.
• Aehr Test Systems (AEHR): Shares gained 12% after receiving a follow-on production order from a major silicon photonics customer for an automated wafer-level burn-in system.

Watchlist: SPCX, MRNA, HOOD, MRVL, AMD, FIG, CRM, ACN, KR

Key Economic Events Today:

EST time

08:30 am: USD Unemployment Claims
08:30 am: USD Philly Fed Manufacturing Index
10:00 am: USD CB Leading Index



Earnings

BMO (Before Market Open): Accenture (ACN), Kroger (KR)




The TEFS Analyst team wishes you a successful day!