US stocks open lower, memory chip sector surges

US stocks opened lower and fluctuated on Wednesday, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average down about 0.5%, and both the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq Composite down about 0.2%. Market risk appetite is cautious, the Federal Reserve's interest rate decision will be announced at 2 PM Eastern time, Alphabet, Amazon, Meta, and Microsoft, the four major tech giants, will report their earnings after the market closes.

Storage chips became the strongest direction at the beginning of the market. Seagate Technology's shares surged more than 19% at the start of the market, the company's third-quarter earnings far exceeded expectations, with almost all of the 2027 production capacity sold out, the CEO stated that the company is entering a "new era of structural growth." Western Digital rose about 11%, SanDisk about 7%, and Micron Technology about 4%.

NXP Semiconductors' shares once surged as much as 23% at the start of the market, marking the largest single-day increase since December 2010, the company's first-quarter revenue increased 12% ahead of expectations, and raised its guidance for the second quarter; Silicon Motion's share price surged as much as 34%, with its second-quarter revenue guidance exceeding expectations.

Intel's shares rose 5% at the start of the market, hitting a new historical high, with a market capitalization exceeding $440 billion; Robinhood's shares dropped about 12% at the start, marking the largest intraday drop since February 11, following the company's first-quarter revenue and profit both falling short of expectations.

Commodities fluctuated significantly. Brent crude oil's intraday increase reached 5.0%, reporting $109.63 per barrel; WTI crude oil's intraday increase reached 4.5%, reporting $104.43 per barrel, spot gold fell more than 1.5% intraday, reporting $4524 per ounce.