WALL Street stocks finished lower ahead of a deluge of earnings from tech heavyweights as markets digested a Federal Reserve decision to keep interest rates unmoved.
The Fed, as expected, left its key lending rate unchanged, resisting pressure from President Donald Trump to continue with cuts in the first-rate decision since his return to the office.
Stocks did not move significantly after the decision or during a news conference with Fed chair Jerome Powell.
“We are looking at a major plethora of earnings data,” Adam Sarhan of 50 Park Investments said of results later Wednesday (Jan 29) from Meta, Tesla, and others.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average finished down 0.3 per cent at 44,713.52.
The broad-based S&P 500 declined 0.5 per cent to 6,039.31, while the tech-rich Nasdaq Composite Index dropped 0.5 per cent to 19,632.32.
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Wednesday’s session extended a choppy trend this week after revelations about Chinese artificial intelligence firm DeepSeek pummelled Nvidia and other US stocks on Monday before they rebounded on Tuesday. Nvidia fell four per cent on Wednesday.
Markets also digested congressional testimony from Trump’s commerce secretary nominee Howard Lutnick, who touted the virtues of tariffs – a lingering source of unease for investors.
“The market knows tariffs are coming,” Sarhan said. “We don’t know what the effect will be.”
Among individual companies, Starbucks shot up 7.8 per cent after reporting lower profits in results that still beat expectations. New CEO Brian Niccol expressed confidence about restoring growth at the coffee chain.
Trump Media & Technology Group gained 7.3 per cent as it announced a venture with Charles Schwab, establishing a programme to promote “American First investment vehicles”. Schwab advanced 0.4 per cent. AFP
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