Trending
By STAN CHOE
The Associated Press
NEW YORK (AP) -- Wall Street is holding relatively steady Wednesday after the Federal Reserve followed through on expectations and raised interest rates to their highest level in more than two decades.
The S&P 500 was 0.2% lower in afternoon trading after flipping between small gains and losses. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 16 points, or less than 0.1%, at 35,454, as of 3:17 p.m. Eastern time, and the Nasdaq composite was 0.4% lower.
Treasury yields were easing in the bond market after Fed Chair Jerome Powell also said no decision has been made about what to do with rates in the future. That may have bolstered hopes among traders that Wednesday's hike may be the last one for a long time.
Alphabet helped to lift the market after it rose 6.3%. The parent company of Google and YouTube reported better profit and revenue for the spring than analysts expected.
That helped to offset a 4.2% drop for Microsoft. It fell despite also reporting better profit and revenue for the spring than expected. Analysts said the company made comments that were perhaps intended to rein in huge expectations for upcoming growth from artificial intelligence. Investors also may have been hoping to hear more about when slowing growth at its Azure cloud computing business will trough.
What Big Tech titans do matters more for Wall Street than other stocks because they have become so influential due to their massive size. Seven stocks alone accounted for most of the S&P 500's returns through the first half of this year, largely on expectations that their explosive growth will continue. They'll need to deliver big profits to justify those gains.
Another member of the "Magnificent Seven" that's overshadowed the rest of the market will report its results after trading closes for the day, Meta Platforms. The stock has more than doubled so far this year, while Alphabet and Microsoft are both up roughly 40%.