The S&P 500 index futures had a fairly positive Wednesday, despite the market’s eyes being glued to the FOMC interest rate decision and Fed Chair Jerome Powell’s subsequent press conference. 

Optimism kicked things off in premarket hours, with traders eagerly buying up any dips, setting a bullish tone before the opening bell.The session started strong, hovering near the premarket high. After a brief round of selling, bulls took charge, driving the index to new highs for the day. However, as the clock ticked closer to the FOMC announcement at 2:00 PM ET, some profit-taking emerged as traders braced for the Fed’s next move.

As anticipated, the Fed kept the overnight target rate steady at 4.25-4.50%, offering no surprises. With the status quo confirmed, bulls wasted no time testing the day’s high. Then came Powell’s press conference. His somewhat dovish remarks didn’t break new ground, but they were enough to fuel a surge, pushing the index to fresh highs and even eclipsing Monday and Tuesday’s highs. The rally hit a day’s high of 5770.50, until Powell touched on tariffs. His comments about tariffs potentially dragging growth down while nudging inflation up in the near term seemed to spook the bulls, triggering a retreat from that level in the final hour.

The session wrapped up with a bout of selling, but the S&P 500 futures still managed to close above the day’s midpoint at 5729.75, posting a solid gain of 60.50 handles.

Among the index’s top components, Tesla Inc (NASDAQ: TSLA) stole the show as the biggest gainer. News broke that the company secured a transportation permit in California, bringing it closer to launching a robotaxi service in the state. The electric vehicle giant charged ahead, climbing $10.55, or 4.68%, to close at $235.86. 

That standout performance was over four times stronger than the cash index’s modest 1.09% advance.

On the quieter side, there were no losers among the top components, leaving Meta Platforms Inc (NASDAQ: META) as the smallest gainer. The tech conglomerate inched up by $1.70, or 0.29%, to finish the day at $584.06.