US stocks close midweek mixed after Fed keeps policy rate unchanged

ISTANBUL

US stocks ended mixed Wednesday after the Federal Reserve decided to leave the federal funds rate constant in the range of 4.25% - 4.50%.

Fed Chair Jerome Powell also signaled that there would be no change in the central bank’s policy stance in September.

The Dow was down 0.38%, or 171.71 points, to close at 44,461.28 and the S&P 500 dropped 0.12%, or 7.96 points, to 6,362.9.

On the other hand, the Nasdaq composite was up 0.15%, or 31.38 points, to end at 21,129.67.

The markets rebounded after the Fed's decision and Powell's remarks, as the bank waits to see if tariffs drive inflation.

The Fed said economic activity growth moderated in the first half of the year, although swings in net exports continue to affect data.

Powell indicated at a news conference that the bank has made no decision for the September meeting.

"We don't do that in advance. We will be taking that information into consideration and all the other information we get," he said.

He also noted that the Fed wants to be sure that President Donald Trump’s tariffs will not cause an uptick in inflation before cutting rates.

"A reasonable base case is that the effects on inflation could be short-lived, reflecting a one-time shift in the price level, but it is also possible that the inflationary effects could instead be more persistent, and that is a risk to be assessed and managed," he said.

Stating that higher tariffs have begun to show more clearly in prices of some goods, Powell said the overall effects on economic activity and inflation remain to be seen.

“But we are still a ways of seeing where things settle down. We are getting clearly more and more information and I think at this point people's estimates, our estimates, outside estimates of the effective level of tariffs is not moving around that much at this point," he noted.

On the data side, the US' gross domestic product (GDP) expanded 3% year-on-year in the second quarter, exceeding expectations of 2.5%.

Immediately after the GDP figures were announced, Trump reiterated his demand for the Fed to lower interest rates.

Describing the figures as “WAY BETTER THAN EXPECTED,” Trump wrote: “No Inflation! Let people buy and refinance their homes,” he wrote on Truth Social.