US STOCKS-Wall Street steady before Fed; tech stocks under pressure
*Spotify falls after Apple bundles services. Sept 16- The S&P 500 and Dow Jones indexes rose on Wednesday on hopes that the Federal Reserve would continue to keep interest rates low for a prolonged period, while a slide in tech-related stocks weighed on the Nasdaq. Apple Inc, Amazon.com Inc, Facebook Inc and Microsoft Corp fell between 0.5% and 1.3%, leading to the…
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* Fed expected to keep rates low for prolonged period
* FedEx jumps on bigger-than-expected quarterly profit
* Spotify falls after Apple bundles services
* Indexes up: Dow 0.78%, S&P 500 0.57%, Nasdaq 0.24%(Adds comments, updates price action)
By Shreyashi Sanyal
Sept 16 (Reuters) – The S&P 500 and Dow Jones indexes roseon Wednesday on hopes that the Federal Reserve would continue tokeep interest rates low for a prolonged period, while a slide intech-related stocks weighed on the Nasdaq.
The central bank’s two-day meeting is its first under anewly adopted framework that promises to shoot for inflationabove 2% to make up for periods where it is running below thattarget.
The Nasdaq briefly turned negative before regaining lostground, while the S&P 500 technology subindex was flatby midday trading. Eight of the 11 S&P sectors gained in earlytrading.
Apple Inc, Amazon.com Inc, Facebook Incand Microsoft Corp fell between 0.5% and 1.3%,leading to the biggest drags on the tech-heavy index.
Wall Street’s main indexes attempted a comeback from atech-driven slump earlier in the month that saw the NasdaqComposite index slip into correction territory in justthree sessions.
The Federal Open Market Committee will release its policystatement and economic projections at 2 p.m. ET (1800 GMT),followed by Fed Chair Jerome Powell’s virtual news briefing halfan hour later.
“The Fed has made abundantly clear that policy rates willremain pinned near zero for as far as the eye can see,” saidSeema Shah, chief strategist at Principal Global Investors.
“Yet, markets will be impatient for additional guidance onhow they will utilize their broader toolkit if they wantinflation to hit 2% over the forecast horizon, let aloneovershoot it.”
At 11:33 a.m. ET the Dow Jones Industrial Average wasup 219.71 points, or 0.78%, at 28,215.31, the S&P 500 wasup 19.50 points, or 0.57%, at 3,420.70 and the Nasdaq Compositewas up 26.60 points, or 0.24%, at 11,216.92.
Mixed data has also kept investors on edge about the pace ofan economic recovery as latest figures showed U.S. consumerspending slowed in August, with a key retail sales gaugeunexpectedly declining.
Delivery firm FedEx Corp jumped 6.4% after reportinga bigger-than-expected quarterly profit, helped in part by pricehikes and lower fuel costs. Shares in rival United ParcelService Inc gained 0.2%.
Both stocks were among top performers on the Dow JonesTransports index, which rose 1.3%. The index is oftenseen as a barometer of economic health.
Spotify Technology SA slipped 3.4% after thestreaming music firm criticized Apple Inc, saying that a newsubscription bundle offer from the iPhone maker abuses itsdominant market position by favoring its own Apple Musicservice.
Eastman Kodak Co jumped 33.9% after a law firmhired by the photography equipment maker said its chiefexecutive officer’s securities transactions around the time thecompany learned it could receive a $765 million government loandid not violate internal policies.
Advancing issues outnumbered decliners for a 3.37-to-1 ratioon the NYSE and a 2.69-to-1 ratio on the Nasdaq.
The S&P index recorded 23 new 52-week highs and no new low,while the Nasdaq recorded 62 new highs and 10 new lows.(Reporting by Shreyashi Sanyal and Devik Jain in Bengaluru;Editing by Shounak Dasgupta)