Stocks were little changed Wednesday after the Federal Reserve’s decision to hold interest rates steady.
The Dow closed higher by 12 points, or 0.02%. The S&P 500 edged lower by 0.01%, closing at 6,978 points after briefly crossing 7,000 for the first time ever earlier this morning. The tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite gained 0.17%.
Fed Chair Jerome Powell in an afternoon press conference said economic growth is solid and signaled the central bank would assess future rate decisions on a meeting-by-meeting basis, maintaining its dependence on economic data.
“The message: the Fed is comfortable on pause … and could stay there for a while as it looks to confirm that the labor market is in the process of stabilizing, police the tariff-driven inflation peak still to come and assess the impact of fiscal stimulus from coming tax refunds,” Krishna Guha, vice chairman at Evercore ISI, said in a note.
The US dollar index was up 0.18%, pausing a recent slide that had put it at its lowest level in four years. Treasury yields, which rise when bonds fall, were slightly higher.
While the stock market was quiet, precious metals — considered havens amid uncertainty — soared higher, continuing a recent surge.
Gold was up 5.4% and hit an all-time high above $5,350 a troy ounce. Gold was up roughly $275, its largest single-day dollar gain on record. Gold was set for its biggest single-day percent gain since 2020.
Silver soared 10% and traded around $116 a troy ounce. Silver is up roughly 65% so far this year and on pace for its best month since 1979.
“A reasonable base case is that the Fed takes up 1-2 more cuts, but that process is likely to begin toward the middle of the year,” Jason Pride, chief of investment strategy and research at Glenmede, said in a note.