NEW YORK: The S&P 500 and the Dow gained on Wednesday as Treasury yields pulled back ahead of a likely pause in the Federal Reserve’s policy tightening campaign, though concerns over rates staying higher for longer kept investor sentiment in check.
The US central bank is expected to maintain its key rate in the range of 5.25%-5.50% as it concludes its meeting at 2 p.m. ET, with investors focused on Fed economic projections and Chair Jerome Powell’s comments for clues on the outlook for rates and inflation.
However, megacap growth stocks including Alphabet, Microsoft and Apple lost between 0.7% and 1.6%, weighing on the communication services and information technology sectors. The tech-heavy Nasdaq also gave up its early gains.
In another sign of new market entrants failing to hold on to their strong gains on debut, Instacart lost 5.5% while Arm Holdings was down 4.4%.
The Boston-based company had secured a valuation of $9.2 billion in its initial public offering after pricing the shares above their indicated range. At 11:47 a.m. ET, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 190.38 points, or 0.55%, at 34,708.11, the S&P 500 was up 7.87 points, or 0.18%, at 4,451.82, and the Nasdaq Composite was down 24.00 points, or 0.18%, at 13,654.18.
Pinterest added 4.3% as Citigroup upgraded the image-sharing platform to “buy” from “neutral” and as the firm announced a share buyback of up to $1 billion.
Coty added 5.1% after the CoverGirl parent raised its annual like-for-like sales forecast. Advancing issues outnumbered decliners by a 3.58-to-1 ratio on the NYSE and a 1.59-to-1 ratio on the Nasdaq. The S&P index recorded 10 new 52-week highs and four new lows, while the Nasdaq recorded 33 new highs and 140 new lows.