The Federal Reserve’s decision to hold rates steady came as no surprise on Wednesday, but the hawkish details in the projections helped hand control to the bears and dragged the S&P 500 index futures sharply lower.
Overnight, bulls and bears oscillated around unchanged without too much drama, though bulls managed to set the session high at 7612.50. The regular session opened near unchanged as well and quickly turned to chop. Despite an attempt to rally into the green, bulls couldn’t hold the line, and the morning rolled over into the red, finding some loose support near Tuesday’s low.
Just as buyers clawed their way back into positive territory, the Fed news hit. The overnight rate stayed unchanged, as expected, but the released FOMC Statement revealed that median Fed official projections now expect a rate hike by the end of the year. Sellers ran away with the news to new lows. As the new Fed Chair, Warsh, took the stage for his first press conference, bulls began picking up the dip. It was a choppy mess, and after bulls fought back to unchanged, bears hit right back. With bears probing the lows and the press conference over, support was broken. A floor was found after reaching a low of 7472.25, where the action chopped for the last half hour. The session concluded somewhat near the day’s low at 7492.75, losing 94.50 handles.
Tomorrow, market participants can look forward to some minor morning macro data along with a handful of earnings reports in the morning and evening. There may also be additional volatility in the morning due to the expected Triple Witch and a synthetic end of week, given the Friday holiday.
Among the top components of the index, Broadcom Inc (NASDAQ: AVGO) flipped its role from Tuesday to emerge as the biggest gainer. The chip designer advanced by $16.19 or 4.30% to close at $392.90 for the day.
That performance was over 5% better than the cash index’s decline of 1.25%.
Conversely, also flipping its role from Tuesday, the biggest loser ended up being Meta Platforms Inc (NASDAQ: META). For the day, the tech conglomerate declined by $32.63 or 5.44% to close at $567.58.
