Traders work on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) in New York on January 14, 2026.

Timothy A. Clary | Afp | Getty Images

Stocks moved lower on Wednesday for a second day, pulling back further from record levels, as traders digested a fresh batch of earnings and monitored geopolitical developments.

The S&P 500 traded 1.1% lower, while the Dow Jones Industrial Average lost 333 points, or 0.7%. The Nasdaq Composite shed 1.6%.

Tech bogged down the broader market. Chip stocks in particular suffered losses, as Broadcom, Nvidia and Micron Technology shed 5%, 2% and 1%, respectively. On Wednesday, Reuters, citing people briefed on the matter, reported that Chinese customs authorities have advised customs agents that Nvidia's H200 chips are not permitted to enter the country.

Wells Fargo was among the laggards in the session, falling more than 5% after the company posted weaker-than-expected revenue for the fourth quarter. Bank of America and Citigroup were lower despite their results beating consensus estimates, as traders didn't view them as strong enough to continue supporting a market trading near record highs.

That adds to their losses for the week in the wake of President Donald Trump's call for credit card interest rate reform that he made on Friday. Bank of America is down roughly 7% week to date, while Citigroup and Wells Fargo have both fallen about 8%.

Stocks were lower even after delayed producer price index and retail sales data for November came in solid.

"If you translate this PPI number into what core PCE will look like, I think it's going to come in a little hot," said Tom Graff, chief investment officer at Facet. "If that's true, then that's a pretty big problem for the Fed. This exacerbates the worry about Fed independence."

Trump's attacks on Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell continued Tuesday amid growing worries over the central bank's independence as the Justice Department conducts a criminal investigation into the Fed's leader. Global central bankers have since come out in defense of Powell in response to the probe's launch.

"What happens if we get to, let's say, the second half of this year, there's a new Fed chair and maybe the Fed should be hiking, or maybe they definitely shouldn't be cutting, because the economy had kind of leveled out and inflation has picked back up," Graff said. "Traders are gonna get worried about that."

Rising geopolitical risk

Geopolitical uncertainty also weighed on sentiment Wednesday, with oil rising for a fifth day amid fears of supply disruptions as a result of civil unrest in Iran — a top member of OPEC — and mounting tensions between that country and the U.S.

President Donald Trump canceled all meetings with Iranian officials on Tuesday and told protesters that "help is on its way." Crude oil prices advanced more than 2% that day and were last up around 1% Wednesday.

Crunch talks are also set to take place Wednesday between the Trump administration and Greenlandic and Danish officials as Trump pushes for U.S. control of Greenland. The president was resolute in his position heading into the meeting, deeming anything less than Greenland becoming a part of the U.S. as "unacceptable."

"The United States needs Greenland for the purpose of National Security. It is vital for the Golden Dome that we are building. NATO should be leading the way for us to get it," he said in a Truth Social post.