Stocks ended Wednesday’s trading slightly lower as shares of energy companies and consumer goods makers outweighed gains in technology companies like Apple.
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The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 0.3%, the Standard & Poor’s 500 added 0.1% and the Nasdaq Composite gained 0.6%.
Among the other United States shares indexes, the broader S&P 500 added 3 points to 2,171.48, while the Nasdaq climbed 5.35 points to 5,102.97.
Meanwhile, the Nasdaq Composite Index, partially thanks to Apple, advanced 29.76 points, or 0.6%, to finish up at 5,139.81, its highest close since December 4, 2015. The Dow industrials slipped 19.31 points, or 0.1%, to 18,473.75, weighed down by shares of McDonalds Corp., which closed 4.5% lower. The index has rallied 8.4 percent in that time after a 5.3 percent rout in the two days following the U.K.’s shock decision to secede from the European Union.
The Dow is up 1,047.14 points, or 6 percent.
One bright spot was Texas Instruments, which rose 6 percent after its current-quarter forecast beat analysts’ estimates.
Twitter, which also reported its results late Tuesday, plunged $2.68, or 15 percent, to $15.77.
The U.S. Federal Reserve is scheduled to conclude its two-day meeting Wednesday afternoon.
In its policy statement, the Fed said near-term risks to the economic outlook have been diminished (http://www.marketwatch.com/story/fed-appears-more-open-to-september-rate-hike-2016-07-27), suggesting that a rate hike in September may be appropriate. Within the Index, there were 135 stocks that advanced, 103 securities declined, and two stocks were unchanged.
“Over the previous year, the Pacific Northwest has been quite strong while prices in the previously strong spots of San Diego, San Francisco and Los Angeles have seen more modest increases”, David Blitzer, managing director and chairman of the Index Committee at S&P Dow Jones Indices, wrote in the report.
Stocks have been on the rise, driven by a better-than-expected start to the second-quarter earnings season, continued signs that the USA economy is holding up following Britain’s vote to exit the eurozone, and continued hopes among investors that central bankers from around the globe will continue to be supportive.
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The Bank of Japan might announce additional stimulus on Friday, potentially with a rate cut and by increasing its asset purchases, after its policy meeting. Earlier, WTI briefly fell below $43 a barrel to hit its lowest since late April. Marathon Oil, Transocean and Hess Corporation all fell roughly 4 percent or more. Turmoil in the rest of the world pushing bond yields down? The dollar ticked up to 106.07 Japanese yen from 105.86 yen, and the euro dipped to $1.0996 from $1.1013. Yahoo shares closed 1.4 percent stronger.
