US stocks end near flat after Fed hikes rates again – Times of India

NEW YORK: Wall Street stocks shrugged off the latest Federal Reserve interest rate hike on Wednesday, finishing little-changed after a choppy session.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average ended 0.2 percent higher at 35,520.12.
The broad-based S&P 500 slipped less than 0.1 percent to 4,566.75, while the tech-rich Nasdaq composite Index dipped 0.1 percent to 14,127.28.

The Fed as anticipated lifted its benchmark lending rate to a range between 5.25 percent and 5.5 percent, 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 percent, Google parent Alphabet which was up 5.6 percent and Coca-Cola, which advanced 1.3 percent.
Companies that fell included Microsoft, whose shares dropped 3.8 percent and Texas Instruments, which slipped 5.4 percent.
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.