Tech stocks led markets lower on Wednesday as the broader mood stayed muted after the Federal Reserve's latest interest rate decision saw the
central bank keep rates unchanged in a range of 4.25%-4.5%
.
The tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite (
^IXIC
) was down about 0.5%, retracing some of a
bounce-back rally
on Tuesday. The S&P 500 (
^GSPC
) was also down nearly 0.5%, while the Dow Jones Industrial Average (
^DJI
) lost 0.3%.
In its statement on Wednesday, the Federal Reserve notably removed language from its December statement indicating that it was making progress towards its goal of 2% inflation, stating simply: "Inflation remains somewhat elevated."
Fed Chair Jerome Powell pushed back on that notion, referring to the change as "language cleanup" rather than intending to send a signal. Markets bounced off their lows of the day on Powell's comments.
Outside of Fed policy, Nvidia (
NVDA
) was again pressuring the tech sector on Wednesday, with the stock falling more than 4% after
a report from Bloomberg said
the Trump administration was weighing additional curbs on exports of its chips.
After the close on Wednesday, Big Tech earnings kicked off in earnest.
Tesla (
TSLA
)
reported quarterly results that largely fell short of Wall Street's expectations
, but shares were higher by about 3% after hours. Meanwhile, Meta (
META
) and Microsoft (
MSFT
) both saw their stocks move lower after reporting results. Meta's sales guidance for the current quarter
fell short of expectations
, weighing on shares, while Microsoft's
cloud revenue missed estimates.