Before the bell: SK Hynix's sevenfold profit jump sends Kospi up 6.6% and Nasdaq futures higher ahead of the Fed

Chip stocks are leading a quiet-to-firm start on Fed day. CoinDesk reports, citing Bloomberg, that SK Hynix posted September-quarter operating profit of 83.3 trillion won ($62.5 billion), a sevenfold increase and more than 7% above analyst forecasts. South Korea's Kospi rose 6.6%. The Federal Reserve's decision comes at 2 p.m. ET; our day-ahead guide has the full schedule.

Where futures trade versus Tuesday

Front-month futures from Yahoo Finance; percentages are our arithmetic. Premarket volume is thin, and the futures "close" is the prior session's last daily value in that feed.

S&P 500 December futures sit about 1.3% below their Oct. 6 peak in our chart, so a gain of this size would leave the index near the top of its recent range going into the decision.

SK Hynix: the AI trade gets a second data point

Besides the profit figure, CoinDesk says SK Hynix plans to return another 60 trillion won ($45 billion) through buybacks and dividends over the rest of its fiscal year, and, per Bloomberg, said its conventional and high-bandwidth memory capacity is sold out through 2029 with shortages expected through at least 2030. SK Hynix shares rose 11% and Samsung Electronics 9%. In U.S. premarket trading, Micron and SanDisk were each up about 4%, CoinDesk says. Treat the sold-out claim as the company's own: it is a supply statement from a seller, not an independent measure of demand. The move follows weeks in which investors questioned how the AI buildout is funded. It also shows why Nasdaq futures lead the Dow this morning.

Stellantis: profit up from a small base, cash still going out

CNBC reports Stellantis had a 4 billion euro ($4.5 billion) industrial cash shortfall in the third quarter, slightly better than 4.3 billion euros a year earlier. Revenue rose 1% to 37.6 billion euros and adjusted operating income rose 184% to 256 million euros from 90 million. The company reaffirmed its target of positive industrial free cash flow in 2027. CNBC notes the shares were up 3.6% shortly after the European open but are down 62% since January. Our earlier report on its record-low share price has the balance sheet.

Rates, oil and crypto

The Treasury's curve shows the 10-year yield at 4.99% on Tuesday, down from 5.00% on Monday, with the 2-year at 4.70% and the 30-year at 5.30%; see the Treasury's data. Our calendar lists the decision with a funds-rate forecast of 3.875%, matching the current 3.88%, which would mean no change. We have no primary-source odds, so we do not quote any. The 30-year mortgage rate on our board is 7.32%.

December WTI is near $101.67, up about 1.8% from Tuesday's close, with the Middle East still the swing factor; see our Aramco report. Bitcoin is $81,404 and Ether $2,367 on Coinbase at 6:31 AM ET, up 2.0% and 2.4% over 24 hours.

Today's calendar

The Fed decision is the only U.S. release on our economic calendar today. Microsoft and Alphabet report after the close, per Nasdaq's earnings calendar, as we noted in the preview. Jobless claims follow Thursday (forecast 199,000 against 194,000 prior), and the October jobs report is Nov. 6. Yesterday's session is in our market close report.

Sources: Yahoo Finance; CoinDesk (citing Bloomberg); CNBC; U.S. Treasury; Coinbase; Chronicle markets board and calendar. This is market information, not investment advice.