Last Update: May 04, 2023, 02:31 IST
Wall Street stocks fell on Wednesday after the Federal Reserve raised interest rates again but signaled it may hold off on additional hikes.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed down 0.8 percent at 33,414.24.
The broad-based S&P 500 fell 0.7 percent to 4,090.75, while the tech-rich Nasdaq Composite index declined 0.5 percent to 12,025.33.
The Fed raised its benchmark lending rate by another quarter-point, for the tenth time in a row, on Wednesday, in a move that was widely expected by analysts.
The central bank said it would monitor economic conditions to determine whether additional steps might be appropriate, modifying earlier language that suggested higher rates were coming.
“We think we’re getting close, or maybe even there” when it comes to raising interest rates sufficiently to combat inflation, Fed Chair Jerome Powell said during a press conference.
But Powell also ruled out cutting interest rates in 2023, a comment that sent the stock lower in the final innings of the day.
B. “It looks like the market didn’t get everything it wanted, but it probably got everything it could have hoped for,” said Art Hogan, an analyst at Riley Financial.
But Steve Sosnick of Interactive Brokers said the market’s comeback reflected that “people are coming around to a consensus that it was more aggressive than it was dovish.”
Regional banking shares, which were under pressure following recent bank failures, ended the day lower, reversing earlier gains.
PacWest Bancorp declined 2.0 percent, KeyCorp nearly two percent and Zions Bancorporation declined 5.3 percent.
Among other companies, Starbucks sank 9.2 percent as the coffee chain reported better-than-expected results but offered a cautious forecast that disappointed investors.
Eli Lilly jumped more than six percent after releasing positive clinical results for donemab, a new treatment for early-onset Alzheimer’s disease.
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(This story has not been edited by News18 staff and is published from a syndicated news agency feed)