U.S. stocks were lower Wednesday, following a couple of critical pieces of information that may have raised more questions about the economy than they answered.
The highlight of this week on Wall Street was expected to be this afternoon’s Fed statement, marking the end of the Federal Open Market Committee’s two-day meeting. The statement, however, offered little clarity. The Federal Reserve removed all calendar-related hints as to their next move on interest rates. Previously, words like ‘patience’ and ‘considerable time’ offered investors the ability to speculate on an impending rate hike.
The initial reading of 1st-quarter GDP came out at 0.2% growth this morning, after a projection of 1.0% growth. Many experts believe this will significantly impact the Fed’s stance and timing on the raising on interest rates.
Here are the final numbers from Wednesday on Wall Street:
Dow Jones Industrial Average: 18,035.53 (-74.61)
NASDAQ: 5,023.64 (-31.78)
S&P 500: 2,106.85 (-7.91)
