Stocks - Wall Street Flat as Fed Fever Cools
Investing.com - Wall Street was little changed after the opening bell, as a very dovish Federal Reserve took investors by surprise.
The Dow was flat by 9:42 AM ET (13:42 GMT), while the S&P 500 gained 1 point, or 0.1%, and the tech-heavy Nasdaq composite rose 13 points, or 0.18%.
The Fed left rates unchanged as expected on Wednesday, but took a more dovish stance on monetary policy as policymakers cut their outlook on U.S. economic growth over the next year. The central bank indicated that it is worried about a slowing economy, even amid a strong labor market.
"The fear factor here is how weak exactly is the economy, how afraid is the Fed at this point, because to make a 180 degree turn like they did is significant," said Peter Cardillo, chief market economist at Spartan Capital Securities.
"They always kept the door open for another rate hike and now that window seems to be shut tight and that is spooking investors."
Financial companies were lower, as they are sensitive to interest rates. Bank of America (NYSE:BAC) fell 0.5%, while JPMorgan Chase (NYSE:JPM) dipped 1.3% and Citigroup (NYSE:C) slipped 1.2%.
Biogen (NASDAQ:BIIB) plunged 27.9% after it ended trials for an Alhzheimer’s drug called Aducanumab, while Walmart (NYSE:WMT) was down 0.3% on news that Chief Technology Officer Jeremy King is leaving the company.
Elsewhere, Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) jumped 1.9% after a price upgrade, while Williams-Sonoma (NYSE:WSM) gained 3.2% after its outlook for 2019 was higher than expected. Micron (NASDAQ:MU) surged 6.5% after it forecast growth in the chip sector and Advanced Micro Devices (NASDAQ:AMD) gained 1.9%.
In commodities, gold futures rose 1% to $1,314.85 a troy ounce, while crude oil inched down 0.2% to $60.14 a barrel. The U.S. dollar index, which measures the greenback against a basket of six major currencies, gained 0.5% to 95.653.
-- Reuters contributed to this report.
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