Wall Street holds steady ahead of the Fed's decision as oil prices and bond yields ease

New York: Wall Street is holding steady Wednesday as it waits to hear from the Federal Reserve, which traders expect will announce a hike to interest rates later in the day to help get the nation's high inflation under control.

The S&P 500 rose 0.2 per cent was on track for just its second gain in the last eight days. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 42 points, or 0.1 per cent, as of 9:35 am Eastern time, and the Nasdaq composite was 0.5 per cent higher.

Stocks got help from some easing for oil prices and pressure from the bond market. The price for a barrel of Brent crude, the international standard, fell 1.1 per cent to USD 107.59. It got to nearly USD 110 earlier this week on worries that the war with Iran will continue to clog the global flow of oil. .

That helped send the yield on the 10-year Treasury, which is the centerpiece of the bond market and dictates where rates for mortgages and other loans go, down to 4.97 per cent from 5.00 per cent late Tuesday. Earlier this week was the first time since 2023 that the 10-year yield topped 5 per cent.

Even with Wednesday's slight easing, the pressure remains high. Brent oil is still well above its USD 72 price from before the war with Iran, when the 10-year yield was at just 3.97 per cent. Worries about inflation staying high are so strong that Wall Street sees it as nearly a certainty that Fed officials will announce their first hike to interest rates since 2023 later in the day.

That's the typical move for the Fed to combat inflation, and it works by making it more expensive for everyone to borrow money, which slows the overall economy and hopefully removes fuel for prices to rise further. It also tends to undercut prices for stocks and other investments, though President Donald Trump has been lobbying for lower interest rates instead of higher.

Inflation is a worldwide problem, and the European Central Bank hiked rates across the Atlantic last week to help diminish it.

Traders are still betting on a slight chance the Fed may hold off on raising rates. If it does, the market could swing because investors may see it as a sign that the Fed is less committed to getting inflation lower.

Fed officials will also release forecasts for where they see interest rates heading in upcoming years, providing another opportunity to inject uncertainty into the market.

A report on Wednesday morning showing that shoppers spent much more at US retailers last month than economists expected could help embolden the Fed. It could be a signal that the economy remains strong enough to withstand higher rates, though the growth could also simply show that shoppers are having to spend more because of higher prices.

On Wall Street, stocks in the artificial-intelligence industry held steadier following their worldwide slide earlier in the week, after leaders of the AI industry called for a slowdown in development to address safety issues for humanity.

Nvidia rose 0.8 per cent, and Advanced Micro Devices climbed 2.6 per cent.

They helped offset a drop of 10.5 per cent for J B Hunt Transport Services. Its chief financial officer told a conference of analysts late Wednesday that it's facing higher costs and expects its earnings to drop from the second quarter to the third.

In stock markets abroad, indexes rose across much of Europe and Asia. South Korea's Kospi climbed 1.4 per cent for one of the world's biggest gains.

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