Stocks were mostly higher Wednesday as the Federal Reserve's monetary policy decision came in-line with market expectations. The Dow Jones Industrial Average ticked below the flatline, while the S&P 500 Index and Nasdaq Composite were about 0.9% and 1.5% higher, respectively.
Here's how the market settled on Wednesday:
S&P 500 Index (NYSE: SPY): +0.85% or +45.71 points to 5,421.03
Dow Jones Industrial Average (NYSE: DIA): -0.09% or -35.21 points to 38,712.21
Nasdaq Composite Index (NASDAQ: QQQ): +1.53% or +264.89 points to 17,608.44
FOMC Decision:
The Federal Reserve Open Market Committee (FOMC) held interest rates at their current range of 5.25% to 5.50% at the conclusion of their two-day meeting on Wednesday, a decision widely expected by Wall Street, as central bankers now project just one rate cute coming some time this year.
"Inflation has eased over the past year but remains elevated," the committee said in a statement, with a notable change in the language being used: "In recent months, there has been modest further progress toward the Committee's 2 percent inflation objective,"; its previous statement said there was "a lack of further progress" in regards to inflation.
In the central bank's "dot plot" of individual participants' rate expectations, showed that the committee now sees five rate cuts through 2025, totaling 1.24 percentage points, down from six in March. If the expectations are met, the federal funds rate will be at 4.1% by the end of next year.
Fed Chair Jerome Powell maintained the central bank's restrictive stance in remarks following the decision on Wednesday.
"Our economy has made considerable progress," Powell said, noting on the labor market coming into "better balance," while the unemployment remains low. "Inflation has eased substantially from a peak of 7% to 2.7%, but is still too high. We are strongly committed to returning inflation to our 2% goal in support of a strong economy that benefits everyone."
Apple:
Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL) took the top spot as the world's most valuable public company on Wednesday, surpassing Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT) after reaching a market cap of $3.36 trillion. The gains come as investors rallied behind Apple's announced generative AI plans, which Evercore analysts believe could help "kick off an iPhone super cycle," as Apple Intelligence would only be accessible by iPhones sold within the last year.
The top spot has been passed around throughout the year as the emerging AI industry shakes up tech giants. Microsoft surpassed Apple in January with a then market cap of $2.89 trillion, while Nvidia (NASDAQ: NVDA) passed Apple earlier this month to briefly become the second-most valuable public company.
In Economic News:
The Consumer Price Index (CPI) was flat month-to-month in May, the Labor Department reported Wednesday, offering another sign of inflation easing across the U.S. economy. Still, the broader CPI, which measures the prices of a basket of goods and services, rose 3.3% annually last month. The monthly rate rose 0.3% in April and 3.3% annually.
Excluding violate food and energy prices, core CPI rose 0.2% on the month and 3.4% year-over-year, coming in slightly below economist expectations.
On the Earnings Front:
Oracle (NASDAQ: ORCL) shares rose over 10% on Wednesday after the software giant announced cloud deals with Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT), OpenAI and Google (NASDAQ: GOOGL) (NASDAQ: GOOG) in addition to its mixed fourth-quarter earnings results.
The company said it is partnering with Microsoft and OpenAI to help provide additional computing capacity to the artificial intelligence start-up, and is supply its database to Google Cloud.
"As investors look to vendors participating in the build-out of GenAI infrastructure, these impressive bookings and the addition of a marquee customer like OpenAI likely puts Oracle more firmly on the radar screen," Morgan Stanley analysts wrote in a note Wednesday.
For Thursday:
Market participants will turn their attention to the release of May's Producer Price Index (PPI). Broadcom (NASDAQ: AVGO) is also set to deliver quarterly results after closing bell.