Following the Federal Reserve's rate increase which left the possibility open to further hikes, US markets closed little changed on Wednesday, although the Dow scored its winning streak to 13 days.
The Federal Reserve raised its benchmark overnight rate of interest by 25 basis points, as widely expected, marking the eleventh hike in the US central bank's previous 12 policy conferences.
In a news conference, Fed Chair Jerome Powell stated that the US central bank is going to make the decisions meeting by meeting while closely monitoring economic data, and also mentioned that a rate decrease is highly improbable this year.
In a client note, Goldman Sachs stated that the Fed's speech did not indicate a slower pace of future hikes, but the bank thought there would be a pause in September.
The market conveyed the message that it did not move the needle. According to Angelo Kourfafas, an investment strategist from Edward Jones, there is always the fear of big surprise.
According to Brent Schutte, a chief investment officier from Northwestern Mutual Wealth Management, Powell's message seemed clear that the Fed is going to wait for economic evidence before making new decisions and he thinks that the Fed will continue to tighten policy until wage inflation is reduced.
Following the release of long-awaited earnings data on Tuesday, shares of major technology companies had varied reactions.
Microsoft dropped 3.72% after announcing an aggressive expenditure plan to fulfill the demand for its latest AI-powered services. Despite this, Microsoft's quarterly revenue and earnings beat expectations.
Alphabet rose 5.78% following Google parent company's second-quarter earnings surpassed Wall Street projections, thanks to solid demand among customers of its cloud-based services and a resurgence in advertising.
The NYSE FANG+ index, which includes numerous megacap growth stocks, fell 0.72%. Thus far this year, the index has risen almost 75% on AI optimism and anticipation that the US Federal Reserve is reaching an end of the current rate-hiking cycle.
Meta Platforms gained 1.39% following Alibaba's cloud division said it was going to back Facebook's open-source AI framework, Llama.
Since of Wednesday, 76.6 percent of the 152 businesses on the S&P 500 that had reported profits had outperformed analysts' estimates, according to Refinitiv data.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average increased by 82.05 points, 0.23% to 35,520.12; the S&P 500 decreased by 0.71 points, 0.02% to 4,566.75; and the Nasdaq Composite fell by 17.27 points, 0.12% to 14,127.28.
Volume on US markets totaled 9.92 billion shares of stock, compared to 10.32 billion averagely for the entire session during the previous 20 trading days.
The Dow oscillated but closed higher, boosted by a rally in Boeing following the news that the planemaker disclosed a quarterly loss smaller than expected and an increase in cash flows. With 13 consecutive days of profits, it had its longest streak of winnings since 1987.
Snap fell 14.23% since the owner of this photo messaging application issued a weaker-than-expected third-quarter projection as it has been struggling to compete for advertising revenue with tech behemoths.
Union Pacific rose 10.42% after the train company named Jim Vena as CEO to replace Lance Fritz.
Wells Fargo rose 2.11% following the bank's board of directors approved a new $30 billion share buyback plan.
On the NYSE, advancers outweighed decliners by a ratio of 1.75 to 1 while on Nasdaq, it's 1.64 to 1 favored advancers.