The stock market didn’t move much on Wednesday after the Federal Reserve’s June interest-rate decision offered few surprises for Wall Street.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average dipped 44 points, or 0.1%. The S&P 500 was down slightly. The Nasdaq Composite rose 0.1%.
The yield on the 2-year Treasury note was down slightly to 3.94%, while the 10-year yield was up, near 4.4%.
WTI crude oil futures rose 0.4% to $75.14 as traders continued to monitor the situation in Iran amid worries that President Donald Trump could decide to join Israel in the conflict.
The Federal Open Market Committee kept interest rates steady and the median forecast among officials still implies two quarter-point cuts through the end of the year.
“The more important results were the revised forecasts for growth and inflation, shifting in a more stagflationary direction,” writes Rosenberg Research senior economist Robert Embree.
During his press conference shortly after the decision, Chairman Jerome Powell said he expects increases in tariffs this year to push up prices and weigh on economic activity, though whether the effects are short-term or persistent depend on a range of factors including the size of the tariffs and how long they take to pass through into prices.
“It takes some time for tariffs to work their way through the chain of distribution to the end consumers,” Powell noted, adding that goods being sold today may have been imported before tariffs were imposed months ago. “We’re beginning to see some effects, and we do expect to see more of them over the coming months.”