U.S. stocks continued to fall today in early trading but gave new gains in the later afternoon after the Federal Reserve announced that they will be cutting benchmark interest rates for a third consecutive meeting. The latest cut brought the federal-funds target rate down to between 1.5% to 1.75%.

Here's how the U.S. stock market closed out midweek:

S&P 500 Index (SPY): +0.33% or +9.88 points

Dow Jones Industrial Average (DIA): +0.43% or +115.27 points

NASDAQ Composite Index (QQQ): +0.33% or +27.12 points

In the Federal Reserve's new monetary policy statement language was removed that said that policymakers would "act as appropriate to sustain expansion." New language states that the committee will "continue to monitor the implications of incoming information for the economic outlook as it assesses the appropriate path of the target range for the federal funds rate." Many analysts and investors took this new wording to mean that there will be a pause on further monetary policy accommodation.

Ahead of the new monetary policy, the Bureau of Economic Analysis released its advanced third-quarter GDP report Wednesday morning. The results were better-than-expected, with headline GDP rising at a seasonally adjusted annualized rate of 1.9%. Personal consumption also grew 2.9% in the third-quarter.

In Stock Sector news, most have been on the rise today, with only Energy -2.12% and Financials -0.14% taking a hit during open market trading. The gaining sectors for the day included Utilities +0.86%, Health Care +0.79%, Information Technology +0.61%, Real Estate +0.61%, Consumer Discretionary +0.60%, Consumer Staples +0.47%, Industrials +0.34%, Communication Services +0.20%, and Materials +0.02%.

Finally in commodity news, the price of oil continues to drop after its four day win streak last week. West Texas Intermediate is down over 1%, bringing the price per barrel to a new low just under $55. Brent Crude also decreased today, with the barrel price dropping over 1.70% to bring prices just above $60. Gold on the other hand is gaining the losses the metal experienced in the beginning of the week, with price per ounce increasing over 0.50% with price the commodity almost at $1,496.