- US stocks finished the day mixed.
- The Fed kept rates steady in first meeting of 2020.
- McDonald's posted its best sales growth in a decade
US stocks finished mixed, as the Dow and the Nasdaq Composite marked their second positive days in a row.
Earnings season is in full swing, and solid results have helped investor sentiment that was hurt by the coronavirus outbreak earlier in the week.
The Federal Reserve is keeping a close eye on the coronavirus outbreak, Fed Chairman Jerome Powell told reporters during the central bank's press conference.
That said, there is still a lot of uncertainty about how far the virus might spread and what the macroeconomic repercussions will be, Powell said in response to a question from CNN's Donna Borak.
While a near-term impact on Chinese output is likely, "we'll have to see what the effect is globally," Powell said.
Investors worry that the virus outbreak could weigh on global growth this year, as China is the world's second-largest economy. Excluding the outbreak's potential impact, analysts expect 2020 worldwide economic growth to tick up as global manufacturing bottoms out. Supportive financial conditions around the globe and the elimination of a hard Brexit risk are also expected to help the world's economy.
"The market should be okay with this. Prior to the coronavirus, people have been circling in a potential hawkish pivot by the Fed. But that’s been put on hold," said Yousef Abbasi, global market strategist with INTL FCStone. "The focus is on the job market and wage growth."
The Federal Reserve on Wednesday held interest rates steady despite renewed pressure from President Donald Trump to make deeper cuts.
According to Rupal Bhansali, chief investment officer and portfolio manager of international and global investments at Ariel Investments, the company will have less to offer investors going forward.
"People think of it as a technology company, when they're really a consumer electronics company," Bhansali said, adding that Apple did well in the last quarter thanks to buoyant iPhone sales. "If the iPhone doesn't sell this company misses earnings."
But services, such as its Apple Music platform, are not proprietary to the company, Bhansali said. This will make its earnings vulnerable going forward.
The coronavirus' outbreak is bound to have an impact on companies as the infection continues to spread.
Apple CEO Tim Cook said the company has closed its store in Wuhan, where the outbreak originated, according to CNN Business' own Paul La Monica.
Any companies with a presence in China right now "obviously have to tell their investors that they're concerned about this outbreak, but they don't want to scare people with information that could turn out to be a little hyperbolic," he said.
Apple isn't the only company with concerns about the financial cost of the virus outbreak.
Solid corporate earnings, worries about the Wuhan coronavirus outbreak and a Federal Reserve monetary policy update later today are pushing and pulling the market in opposite directions.
"Let's see what happens with the virus," Tuchman added.
Markets sold off Monday over fear surrounding the coronavirus' outbreak.
AT&T, which owns CNN's parent company, showed Wednesday just how much cord-cutting is changing its business.
So what's going on here?
AT&T's WarnerMedia business is transitioning to a world where people pay a la carte for their favorite shows and videos (rather than cable service like AT&T's U-Verse or TV Now).
So it's making a big investment in HBO Max, a Netflix/Disney+/Prime Video/Hulu/Apple TV+ competitor. To do that, AT&T has to hoard its own content and license other shows and movies.
That's an expensive proposition. Without that HBO Max investment, WarnerMedia's sales would have been up 10% last quarter, AT&T said.
AT&T is gambling that its investment will pay off for the long-haul. In the meantime, it's taking a hit. The stock's down 3%.