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Stock Market Today: Stocks Sink After Latest Fed Rate Hike

Stocks bounced between positive and negative territory for most of Wednesday as investors anxiously awaited this afternoon’s policy decision from the Federal Reserve.

But the major indexes made a beeline lower after the Fed increased interest rates by 0.25%, even as the central bank indicated that rate hikes could be coming to an end.

Most of Wall Street was anticipating a 25 basis point rate hike from the Fed, though recent turmoil in the financial sector following the collapse of several lenders, including Silicon Valley Bank, increased the chance the central bank would pause. However, Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell said in a subsequent press conference that “inflation remains too high,” and that the central bank remains “strongly committed to bringing inflation down.”