Markets are bracing for a pivotal Fed decision, with a widely expected rate cut setting the tone for a busy evening across policy, corporate shake-ups, and tech.
Pfizer is making deep workforce cuts in Switzerland as part of a sweeping cost-saving push, while ByteDance and Alibaba scramble to secure Nvidia’s powerful H200 chips after US export approval.
Crypto is stabilizing ahead of Jerome Powell’s remarks, with Bitcoin inching higher and traders watching for any hawkish surprises.
Fed poised for cautious rate cut
The Federal Reserve looks set to cut interest rates by a quarter point on Wednesday, which would bring the federal funds rate down to a range of 3.50% to 3.75%.
They’re making the call even though the recent government shutdown has messed with some of the usual economic data they rely on.
Inside the Fed, there’s still plenty of debate.
The hawkish members argue that inflation, now sitting around 2.8% is too close for comfort to keep drifting above the Fed’s 2% target.
On the other side, the doves are pointing to signs of a cooling job market, especially the 0.4% jump in unemployment back in September.
This meeting will likely set the tone for 2026.
Even with this cut, the Fed may hint at slowing or even pausing future reductions next year, given how divided policymakers are right now. Markets seem to agree, traders are only expecting two more cuts in 2026.
Pfizer slashes Swiss workforce
Pfizer is planning some major job cuts in Switzerland, with more than 200 positions set to be eliminated by the end of the year.
That means the company’s Swiss workforce will shrink from around 300 people to just about 70.
The move is part of a larger, multi-year push to cut costs as Pfizer deals with falling revenue now that demand for its COVID products has dropped off.
The company is aiming for about $7.7 billion in savings by 2027.
As part of the shake-up, Rea Lal is taking over the slimmed-down Swiss operations, following Sabine Bruckner’s move into an international role. Pfizer hasn’t made an official comment yet.
This isn’t happening in isolation, as Novartis recently said it plans to cut as many as 550 jobs at one of its Swiss sites by 2027.
ByteDance, Alibaba rush for Nvidia chips
ByteDance and Alibaba have reportedly reached out to Nvidia to place orders for its high-powered H200 AI chips, now that President Donald Trump has signed off on exporting them to China.
These companies are looking to buy in large quantities because the H200 is massively stronger, almost six times more powerful than the H20 chips the US previously allowed.
That kind of boost would give them a big edge in training advanced AI models, especially against domestic rivals like Huawei.
China’s regulators have already met with ByteDance, Alibaba, and Tencent to get a sense of how much demand there is, but they haven’t given the green light yet.
Part of the holdup is limited supply, and part is Beijing’s ongoing push to promote homegrown chips.
Even so, some Chinese firms have been trying to get their hands on H200s through grey-market channels.
If official approval comes through, analysts expect any purchases to stay pretty low-key. Meanwhile, Nvidia is focusing most of its resources on ramping up production of its next-gen Blackwell chips.
Bitcoin edges higher
Bitcoin ticked up about 1.2% to $92,672 as traders look ahead to the Fed’s expected 25-basis-point rate cut, which would bring rates down to 3.50%–3.75%.
Markets are already pricing in more than an 85% chance that the cut happens, but any hawkish messaging around inflation or divisions inside the FOMC is keeping a lid on bigger gains.
After a rough drop in November, Bitcoin has mostly steadied.
It even pushed above $94,000 on Tuesday, though trading has stayed pretty range-bound. Ethereum, meanwhile, jumped 6.8% to $3,323, and other altcoins have been rallying as well.
The big wildcard is Jerome Powell. If he takes a tougher tone, that could strengthen the dollar, push yields higher, and slow down inflows into crypto ETFs.
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