US stocks shrug off Fed rate hike, ending unchanged
US stocks ended Wednesday little changed following a Federal Reserve rate hike that left the door open for future hikes, but the Dow scored a 13-day winning streak. The Fed lifted its benchmark overnight interest rate by a widely expected 25 basis points, marking the 11th hike in the US central bank's past 12 policy meetings. Fed Chair Jerome Powell said in a press conference the central bank will make decisions meeting by meeting, closely watching economic data, but noted that a rate cut is very unlikely this year. Goldman Sachs said in a note to clients that the Fed's statement did not signal a slower pace of hikes in the future, but that the bank was expecting a hold in September. Following long-awaited earnings on Tuesday, big tech companies' shares had mixed reactions. Microsoft eased 3.72 percent after laying out an aggressive spending plan to meet demand for its new artificial intelligence (AI)-powered services. The Windows maker still surpassed estimates for quarterly revenue and profit. Alphabet gained 5.78 percent after the Google parent's second-quarter profit exceeded Wall Street expectations on steady demand for its cloud services and a rebound in advertising. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 82.05 points, or 0.23 percent, to 35,520.12; the S&P 500 lost 0.71 points, or 0.02 percent, at 4,566.75; and the Nasdaq Composite dropped 17.27 points, or 0.12 percent, to 14,127.28. Volume on US exchanges was 9.92 billion shares, compared with the 10.32 billion average for the full session over the last 20 trading days. (Reuters)