Stock market today: Live updates

Check out some of the companies making headlines in premarket trading.

• Robinhood — Shares of the brokerage firm jumped more than 6% after unveiling its Robinhood Gold Card, a credit card where cash back can be deposited into a brokerage account.

• Concentrix — Shares slipped nearly 4% on the back of disappointing fiscal second-quarter earnings guidance. The customer experience technology company also reiterated its full-year outlook for 2024.

• GameStop — Shares plummeted more than 17% after the video game retailer reported a large decline in revenue in the fourth quarter compared to the year-earlier period. The company added that it also reduced its workforce by an unspecified number throughout the quartet to cut costs.

Read the full list here.

— Brian Evans

The outcome of the upcoming U.S. elections isn’t likely to have a huge impact on stocks benefiting from the Inflation Reduction Act’s clean hydrogen tax credits, according to Barclays.

“With the upcoming US election this year, we’ve received a number of investor inquiries around potential changes to the IRA under different US election scenarios. Under all three election scenarios — blue wave, red wave, divided government — we see limited risk from the hydrogen tax credits, with the 45Q (blue) credit likely more insulated from change relative to 45V (green),” the bank wrote in a Tuesday note.

In the event of a red wave, Republicans could certainly try to repeal pieces of the IRA. However, Barclays noted that hydrogen tax credits are more protected than other parts of the IRA.

— Lisa Kailai Han

There’s merit in the artificial intelligence trade, but UBS says that investors shouldn’t forget about one stock category: small- and mid-caps.

“While we believe the excitement over AI is rational, we also see attractive value in small- and mid-sized companies. With rising risk of over-concentration, we believe adding small- and mid-cap companies to a portfolio has the potential to boost returns and improve diversification over the long term,” the bank wrote in a Tuesday note.

Investing in smaller companies have the added benefit of gaining exposure to other structural growth themes, such as the energy transition, healthcare disruption and water scarcity. Valuations are low and improving, while supportive macro inflections are also emerging for small- and mid-cap names, UBS added.

— Lisa Kailai Han

Merck shares were up more than 4% in the premarket after the Food and Drug Administration approved on Tuesday the use of Winrevair, a drug aimed at treating adults with pulmonary arterial hypertension.

“This is a really great opportunity for the company, but really, more importantly, a great important opportunity for patients,” Merck chief medical officer Eliav Barr told CNBC.

— Fred Imbert

Bank of Japan will keep an eye on currency moves as well as their impact on the country’s economy, Governor Kazuo Ueda reportedly said on Wednesday.

“Currency moves are among factors that have a big impact on the economy and prices,” Ueda told parliament, according to a Reuters report.

The Japanese yen hit its weakest level against the dollar in about 34 years at 151.97 earlier in the session. It was last trading at 151.72.

Japan’s central bank ended its negative interest rate policy after eight years last week and abolished its yield curve control policy.

— Shreyashi Sanyal, Reuters

The Japanese yen hit its weakest level against the greenback on Wednesday in about 34 years, falling to as low as 151.97 before strengthening slightly.

Yen fell below its previous record low of 151.95 reached in October 2022.

Japanese officials have been issuing strongly worded statements regarding the currency, with finance minister Shunichi Suzuki reportedly saying that the country “won’t rule out any steps to respond to disorderly FX moves.”

China’s combined industrial profit for January and February climbed 10.2% year on year, according to data from the country’s statistics bureau.

State-owned enterprises’ profits grew 0.5% rise in January and February, while foreign firms, including those in Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan, booked a 31.2% gain in profits.

NBS data also showed profits at private sector companies rose 12.7% year on year.

Industrial profit for the whole of 2023 fell 2.3%.

— Lim Hui Jie

Shares of K-Pop agency Hybe Entertainment rose as much as 7.4% after the agency signed an exclusive distribution agreement with Universal Music Group for the next 10 years.

The move brought its share price to the highest level in about three months, with the stock on track for its largest one-day gain since October 2023.

Artists under UMG include Taylor Swift, Ariana Grande and Justin Bieber.

Hybe, which is home to K-Pop sensation BTS, said the agreement allows it access to UMG’s network.

UMG will also collaborate with Hybe’s fan platform, Weverse, “bringing more of a direct connection between UMG artists and their fandom,” the announcement said.

— Lim Hui Jie

Rising risks of recession are unlikely to put a damper on the current market rally, according to Piper Sandler.

In fact, the opposite might be true.

“We believe stocks will rally on rising recession risks (i.e., softer macro data) — certainly an unusual take!” the investment firm wrote. “We remain constructive with the view that lower rates from softer macro data will set up stocks for another leg higher in the coming quarters.”

Going forward, Piper Sandler views higher rates as the greatest threat to the market rally and the most likely catalyst for a correction.

— Lisa Kailai Han

In a Tuesday note, HSBC Global Research released a list of 13 surprising market statistics.

Here are a few:

• “The current market cap of Bitcoin is higher than the GDP of 159 of the world’s economies in 2023.”
• “40% of retail sales in Korea take place online vs less than 25% in the US and western Europe.”
• “Annual cement consumption in China is down 15% since 2020, but it is still more than the US has consumed in the last 20 years.”
• “India, Korea, and Taiwan all have twice the number of large, liquid companies open to foreign investors than there are in mainland China.”

— Lisa Kailai Han

Stock futures traded up modestly shortly after 6 p.m. ET.

Dow futures added 0.2%. S&P 500 and Nasdaq 100 futures each ticked up by 0.1%.

— Alex Harring