US Equity Indexes Rise as Investors Await to Parse Nvidia's Results While Weighing Fed's Latest Meeting Minutes

04:48 PM EST, 11/19/2025 (MT Newswires) -- US equity indexes rose on Wednesday ahead of Nvidia's (NVDA) quarterly results and as Treasury yields gained amid a surge in odds for a monetary policy pause in December.

The tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite climbed 0.6% to 22,564.23, with the S&P 500 up 0.4% to 6,642.16 and the Dow Jones Industrial Average 0.1% higher at 46,138.41. Communication services and technology led the gainers, while energy emerged as the steepest decliner.

Nvidia (NVDA) is expected to "handily" exceed Wall Street estimates during Q3 earnings, given the positive data points noted from Asian supply checks along with recent Big Tech capital expenditure numbers seen by hyper-scalers, Wedbush said in a note. Shares of Nvidia (NVDA) climbed 2.9%, the top gainer on the Nasdaq.

Meanwhile, Workday (WDAY) announced the launch of a European Union sovereign cloud for its human resources and finance platform and agreed to partner with Alphabet-owned Google's (GOOG) Cloud BigQuery platform.

In a separate development, Google (GOOG) said its DeepMind division is launching a new artificial intelligence research lab in Singapore. This comes as Open Text (OTEX) disclosed the expansion of its collaboration with Google Cloud to launch new AI-to-AI tools. Shares of Alphabet jumped 2.8%.

In economic news, the Federal Open Market Committee's meeting minutes revealed a divisive debate among policymakers regarding the future path of monetary policy, with many members suggesting that while further rate reductions may be needed, a cut in December may not be appropriate.

The probability of a 25-basis-point cut in interest rates next month sank to 31% on Wednesday from 50% a day ago, according to the CME FedWatch tool.

Most Treasury yields rose, with the 10-year up 1.6 basis points to 4.14%. The two-year rate climbed 1.3 basis points to 3.59%.

"The inconsistency in Fed messaging highlights the uncertainty regarding the outlook for policy at the final meeting of the year, as well as the broader pathway for rates into 2026," Stifel Chief Economist Lindsey Piegza said in a note. "There is arguably very little justification, let alone a sense of urgency, to offer additional policy concessions from here."

Further in economic news, the Atlanta Federal Reserve's Nowcast growth estimate for gross domestic product increased by 10 basis points to 4.2% for Q3.

The US international trade deficit narrowed to $59.55 billion in August from a revised $78.15 billion gap in July, compared with a $60.4 billion shortfall expected in a survey compiled by Bloomberg. Exports rose in the month, while imports fell.

The ICE Dollar Index rose 0.7% to 100.17, with investors awaiting the release of the delayed September jobs report on Thursday. "Should the jobs data fail to swing the market towards a Fed cut in December, then pressure remains on equity markets," ING said in a note.

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