Wall Street ends down on uncertainty about Fed rate path
STORY: U.S. stocks ended lower Wednesday, reversing gains after the Federal Reserve raised interest rates for the 10th straight time and signaled it could pause further hikes.
But comments by Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell sowed confusion and left investors wondering what the U.S. central bank's next move would be.
The Dow lost 8-tenths-of-one-percent, the S&P 500 fell 7-tenths and the Nasdaq closed down about half of one percent.
BMO Family Office Chief Investment Officer Carol Schleif says the Fed is being cautious.
“The economic data that was out today was pretty solid, above expectations showing you've still got nice underpinnings in the economy and the Fed came out as expected, didn't surprise anybody and came out with a quarter point hike. You can argue whether or not they should have done it, but from a market standpoint they're they're wending a very cautious path between not letting the the equity markets in particular get too exuberant. And you know those markets have been looking for a Fed pivot for a very long period of time. That the Fed keeps patently saying they're not going to do yet.”
Investors are still betting on rate cuts by the end of the year according to the CME FedWatch tool.
In terms of individual stocks... Advanced Micro Devices had a rough session falling 9-percent after the chipmaker forecast quarterly sales below estimates due to a weak PC market. While Starbucks dropped about the same after it did not lift its 2023 guidance.
