Stocks trade mixed at the open as investors await Fed rate hike decision

Yahoo Finance Live’s Brad Smith breaks down how stocks are trading following the opening bell on Wednesday.

Video transcript

BRAD SMITH: Bouncing around, bouncing around, bouncing. Of course, a technical term for the markets, coined by N.E.R.D and Rihanna. Dow Jones Industrial Average, you're seeing that flat as of right now here, still holding on to some gains just ever so slightly. Over the past three days, still higher by about 2 and 1/4%, just a little bit more than that.

The NASDAQ composite, you're seeing that flat, but to the downside for the tech heavy average this morning. Out of the gate, down by about six points, but over the past three days, in context here, still higher by about 1.9%. And the S&P 500, you're seeing that here on this hump day up-- well, up over the past three days. But here on this hump day, it is flat to the downside by about 1/10 of a percent we'll round that off to.

Also want to take a look at some of the sector activity that we're seeing out of the gate this morning. 11 S&P 500 sectors, you know what the deal is, folks. We've got them pulled up on your screen here. XLRE already pulling up the caboose. That's down by about 1.2%. But hey, look no further than some staples. It seems like there might be a little bit of a retreat to those staples this morning, at least. It's up by about 1/10 of a percent and is leading the charge here among the S&P 500 11 sectors, but more laggards than gainers. Overall, the index is lower.

Taking a look at some of the tech moves that we're seeing out of the gate here and focusing in on some of the mega-cap tech names, Microsoft, Alphabet, both of those lower here to start off the day. Alphabet down by a little bit more than 1%. Apple holding on to slight gains. That is up by about 1/10 of a percent. I didn't touch anything, but the screen changed, so we're just going to go back to it for a hot second here and take a look at Tesla and how that's doing on the day. And here's why. 6/10 of a percent move higher here on the day, but I'd also been tracking this one yesterday for a little bit.

Let's just see how it's performing on the week. Over the past three days, up by about 10%. Pretty significant move that we're seeing there on Tesla, even as Elon continues to tweet about his own economic inclinations or projections. And so we'll continue to watch that, as well as Meta. Meta has been seeing an interesting move on the week. Of course, you had that call yesterday that really gave Reels a little bit of a sentiment boost there. But ultimately, over the past three days, up by about 4% for Meta Platforms, Facebook-- Facebook, Meta, whatever you're calling them at home, call them up this week.

JULIE HYMAN: Whatever we're calling it now, exactly. It looks like KeyBank also turning bullish on Meta shares this morning. And so that doesn't hurt matters. It seems like a lot of people are-- there's some positive chatter.