NEW YORK CITY: US stocks Wednesday ended mixed after a busy day of news that included a policy statement from the Federal Reserve and a mixed report on US economic growth.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average lost 21.05 (0.14 percent) at 15,499.54.
The broad-based S&P 500 slipped 0.23 (0.01 percent) to 1,685.73, while the tech-rich Nasdaq Composite Index added 9.90 (0.27 percent) at 3,626.37.
Second-quarter US gross domestic product grew 1.7 percent, above the 1.1 percent pace expected by analysts. However, the report also included a steep downgrade in first-quarter GDP growth, which is now estimated at 1.1 percent instead of 1.8 percent.
Meanwhile, the Federal Reserve's Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) concluded a two-day meeting with a statement that economic growth was at a "modest" pace and pledging to maintain its aggressive bond-buying program. The statement did not give a timetable for scaling back the bond-buying program.
Art Hogan, a managing director at Lazard Capital Markets, rated the Fed's statement as "mildly dovish" and suggesting that the Fed was more likely to taper the program in December than September.
US bond yields retreated after the FOMC statement.
Credit-card company Visa sank 7.5 percent following a federal ruling that is likely to mean the Fed will need to reduce the cap that banks and credit card companies can charge merchants on debit-card transactions.
American Express fell 1.9 percent. Mastercard gained 1.5 percent after besting earnings expectations by 66 cents at $6.96 per share.
Computer maker Dell sank 1.6 percent to $12.66 after a special committee rejected founder Michael Dell's proposal to raise the price of his takeover bid in exchange for a shift in how votes are computed. The Dell-led consortium has bid $13.65 a share in the go-private proposal.
Facebook took a break from its upward surge, dipping 2.2 percent after earlier topping $38 for the first time since its May 2012 initial public offering. Shares have risen nearly 40 percent since the company surprised the market earlier this month with strong mobile ad revenues.
JC Penney plummeted 10.2 percent following a report in the New York Post that CIT, a commercial lender to US apparel companies, had suddenly halted deliveries to Penney stores.
Bond prices rose. The yield on the 10-year US Treasury slipped to 2.59 percent from 2.60 percent Tuesday, while the 30-year came in at 3.65 percent from 3.67 percent. Bond prices and yields move inversely.
Comments
Comments are closed.