- Markets: Stocks finished lower, with Nike and Home Depot dragging down the Dow.
- Fed leaves interest rates unchanged. Read more.
- Microsoft (MSFT) and Apple (AAPL) are each worth about $1 trillion.
- Qualcomm (QCOM) reports earnings after the bell.
Wednesday's trading day is over and interest rates have remained unchanged. Here's what investors will look at tomorrow:
Stocks ended lower on Wednesday following the Federal Reserve’s monetary policy update. The Fed didn’t have many surprises up its sleeve, leaving interest rates unchanged and reiterating its patient approach to monetary policy.
Stocks are near their session lows after Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell's press conference.
Powell stressed the central bank's independence, somewhat unsurprisingly, in response to questions about President Donald Trump's call for a 1% rate cut to boost the economy.
Powell also said that the Fed remained committed to its 2% inflation target and that the current lower inflation might be transitory.
In other assets, the dollar turned positive and climbed 0.3% to 97.718 and the 10-year US Treasury yield was little changed at 2.5125%.
Fears of an economic slowdown have subsided in the wake of positive news from China, and trade tensions between Washington and Beijing appear to be easing as negotiators work toward a deal.
Stocks added to their gains after the Federal Reserve released its monetary policy update.
While the Fed is expected to keep interest rates steady today, the market is beginning to price in a 25 basis point rate cut later this year, as evidence by CME Fed funds futures. If the central bank were to lower rates again, it would likely weigh on the dollar, which enjoyed a tailwind last year from four interest rate increases.
So far, Fed Chairman Jerome Powell has preached patience this year, and has not given any firm indication that the next move of interest rates would necessarily be lower.
About an hour into trading, stocks are holding in the green, despite some not-so-great economic data.
The ISM manufacturing index for April came in below expectations at 52.2, and construction spending for March fell 0.9%, more than forecast.