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US stocks closed mixed on Thursday as investors digested the Federal Reserve’s accelerated interest-rate hike guidance. The Nasdaq closed near a record high, while the Dow Jones Industrial Average and the S&P 500 were down on the day.
Based on new projections from the Federal Open Market Committee, the US central bank will raise its benchmark interest rate two times in 2023.
“Overall, we characterize this meeting as being slightly hawkish, but not overly so, given the committee acknowledged the improving economic conditions, but remained steadfast on its approach to recent inflation data,” Calvin Norris, US rates strategist at Aegon Asset Management, said in a statement.
Norris added that the eventual tapering of its quantitative easing purchases after “substantial further progress” has been made in the economy.
The benchmark 10-year Treasury yield edged lower to 1.518% from Wednesday’s 1.569%.
On Wednesday, all three major stock indexes closed lower following the FOMC announcement.
Here’s where US indexes stood at the 4 p.m. close on Thursday:
GameStop could be one of the newest stocks on a list of the 1,000 largest companies thanks to the army of retail traders that have pushed the share price to dizzying highs. But AMC Entertainment might have just missed the cutoff.
In the digital asset space, bitcoin was trading slightly lower by 3.35% to $37,796. The cryptocurrency has been trading sideways following the massive crash in May but reclaimed $40,000 this week. Last month’s massive selloff slashed bitcoin’s market capitalization by almost 30% to $766 billion.
Galaxy Digital CEO and long-time cryptocurrency bull Mike Novogratz said the true value of the bitcoin lies mainly in the community it has built, and that it is valuable because people say it is. He also said Elon Musk’s eclectic tweets aren’t good for cryptocurrencies.
Meanwhile, Coinbase co-founder Fred Ehrsam said that 90% of NFTs would eventually be worthless and that people shouldn’t dismiss dogecoin.
Oil prices slipped. West Texas Intermediate crude fell 1.29% to $79.22. Brent crude, oil’s international benchmark, ticked lower by 1.53%, to $73.25 per barrel.
Gold dropped 2.27%, to $1,777.04. The precious metal tumbled on the Fed’s accelerated rate-hike projections.
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