Wednesday finally broke the logjam that the stock market had been in earlier in the week, as the Federal Reserve's two-day meeting on interest rates finally ended. Fed Chair Jerome Powell announced a quarter-percentage-point cut in the Federal Funds rate to a new range of 3.5% to 3.75%. However, the Federal Open Market Committee decision suggested that the central bank would make just a single rate cut in 2026, which is somewhat more hawkish than many economists had expected. Nevertheless, the news resulted in gains for major benchmarks, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average (^DJI 1.31%) leading the way and the Nasdaq Composite (^IXIC 1.46%) and S&P 500 (^GSPC 1.22%) following suit.
|
Index |
Daily Percentage Change |
Daily Point Change |
|---|---|---|
|
Dow |
+1.05% |
+497 |
|
S&P 500 |
+0.67% | +46 |
|
Nasdaq |
+0.33% |
+78 |
Data source: Yahoo! Finance.
The peak of earnings season was well over a month ago, but a few companies are still reporting their latest results. Many of those companies were among the stocks making the biggest moves today. Let's take a closer look.
Image source: The Motley Fool.
Top Stock Gainers Today
PLAB: +45%
Photronics (PLAB 3.61%) was the top stock market gainer on Wednesday after the semiconductor circuit-design technology leader reported fiscal fourth-quarter and full-year 2025 results. At first glance, the numbers didn't seem to be much cause for celebration, as revenue fell 2% year over year in fiscal 2025 and adjusted earnings of $2.01 per share were also down slightly from 2024's figures. However, most investors had expected a much worse showing from the tech company, and CEO George Macricostas said that strength in its core U.S. business and encouraging signs from its expansion into South Korea could play a big role in making fiscal 2026 better yet.
NASDAQ: PLAB
Key Data Points
GEV: +16%
Natural gas turbine specialist GE Vernova (GEV 1.53%) was also a big winner on Wednesday. The company held an investor event late Tuesday at which it dramatically boosted its sales and free cash flow estimates for 2028. GE Vernova is counting on rising demand for electrical power from new data centers for artificial intelligence and cloud computing capabilities to drive hyperscalers, utilities, and other businesses to purchase more gas turbines. And with the company now expecting its backlog to rise from $135 billion today to $200 billion three years from now, it's clear that GE Vernova expects the AI boom to continue indefinitely into the future.
NYSE: GEV
Key Data Points
Top Stock Losers Today
AVAV: -13%
AeroVironment (AVAV +4.45%) was one of the top stock losers on the day, having disappointed investors with its fiscal second-quarter financial results late Tuesday and seen substantial declines in after-hours trading. The drone maker did manage to report greater revenue growth than most investors had anticipated. However, adjusted earnings per share were down more than 6% year over year to $0.44, missing the consensus forecast among investors for $0.79 per share. AeroVironment also cut its projected full-year fiscal 2026 earnings forecast by $0.15 to $0.20 per share, setting a new yearly range of $3.40 to $3.50 per share.
NASDAQ: AVAV
Key Data Points
DNLI: -11%
Finally, Denali Therapeutics (DNLI 4.58%) finished Wednesday down 11%. After having seen shares climb sharply in November and early December, the biopharmaceutical company chose to raise capital through a secondary offering of stock and warrants. Denali announced the pricing of that offering this morning, collecting $17.50 per share. That should add $200 million in gross proceeds to Denali's war chest for future research and development expenses, but it represented much weaker pricing than the $19.66 closing price for the stock Tuesday afternoon. Investors will need to hope that the company's pipeline of candidate treatments yields good results in the future.
