2 hours ago
Stocks Lower as Powell Speaks. Dow Down 200 Points.
Stocks perked up slightly but were still trading lower as Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell began speaking on Wednesday.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 209 points, or 0.5%. The S&P 500 was down 0.7%. The Nasdaq Composite was down 1%.
The market’s decline accelerated Wednesday afternoon when the Federal Open Market Committee said it kept interest rates steady at its January meeting. Though that move was widely expected by markets, language from December describing inflation as somewhat elevated but moving toward the central bank’s 2% target was absent this time around. Instead, the FOMC simply said, “Inflation remains somewhat elevated.”
