US: Stocks end near flat after Fed hikes rates again

WALL Street stocks shrugged off the latest Federal Reserve interest rate hike on Wednesday (Jul 26), finishing little-changed after a choppy session.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average ended 0.2 per cent higher at 35,520.12.

The broad-based S&P 500 slipped less than 0.1 per cent to 4,566.75, while the tech-rich Nasdaq Composite Index dipped 0.1 per cent to 14,127.28.

The Fed as anticipated lifted its benchmark lending rate to a range between 5.25 per cent and 5.5 per cent, with chair Jerome Powell saying during a press conference that the central bank would let data determine whether to hike again.

Briefing.com analyst Patrick O’Hare said Powell’s comments met the market’s expectations, noting that at the end of the press conference, stocks had essentially reverted to their position from before the 1800 GMT announcement.

“It was a very non-committal kind of presentation, which is good enough for the market,” he said.

Investors were also fixated on a heavy round of earnings from a range of big companies.

Among the companies that gained after results were Boeing, whose shares rose 8.7 per cent, Google parent Alphabet which was up 5.6 per cent and Coca-Cola, which advanced 1.3 per cent.

Companies that fell included Microsoft, whose shares dropped 3.8 per cent and Texas Instruments, which slipped 5.4 per cent.

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O’Hare said companies, on average, are reporting slightly below expectations in terms of financial results. But executives’ commentary about the economy have been better than feared.

“They’re acknowledging that there’s some slowing, but consumers are hanging in there,” O’Hare said. AFP