Wall Street Today: DJIA Briefly Hits Record High, But S&P 500 and Nasdaq Fall Despite Fed Rate Cut

The Dow Jones Industrial Average briefly hit an all-time intraday high Wednesday, but the S&P 500 and Nasdaq Composite fell slightly after the Fed cut its benchmark interest rate a quarter-point as widely expected.

The $Dow Jones Industrial Average (.DJI.US)$ rose to a 46,261.95 intraday record shortly after the Fed announced its move, beating a previous peak set last Thursday.

However, the Dow industrials later trimmed their gains to end 260.42 ticks higher (0.6%) at 46,018.32. That's a bit shy of the index's 46,108.00 all-time closing high set last week.

Meanwhile, the $Nasdaq Composite Index (.IXIC.US)$ eased 72.63 points (0.3%) to a 22,261.33 close, while the $S&P 500 Index (.SPX.US)$ shed 6.41 points (0.1%) to 6,600.35.

Still, both the SPX and IXIC ended slightly higher than they had been trading at shortly before to the Federal Reserve's rate-cut announcement.

Macro

As Wall Street had widely expected, the Fed used its regularly scheduled monetary-policy meeting Wednesday to cut its Federal Funds rate 25 basis points to a 4%-4.25% range.

Fed members also released their latest economic projections, in which they predicted another 50 points of cuts on average later this year.

Markets had for weeks been anticipating that the Fed, which uses interest rates to try to maximize U.S. employment while minimizing inflation, would cut rates in amid softer recent U.S. jobs data.

Moo-vers

Like Wall Street's major indexes, the "Magnificent Seven" stocks ended Wednesday's session mixed.

Four Mag-7 members fell, led by $NVIDIA (NVDA.US)$. NVDA sank 2.6% on a Financial Times report that Beijing has banned Chinese companies from buying the U.S. firm's chips amid ongoing Sino-U.S. trade disputes.

Other Mag-7 names to lose ground included $Amazon (AMZN.US)$ (off 1%), $Alphabet-A (GOOGL.US)$ (0.7% lower) and $Meta Platforms (META.US)$ (0.4% weaker).

Conversely, three Mag-7 stocks rose – $Tesla (TSLA.US)$(up 1%),$Apple (AAPL.US)$(0.4% stronger) and $Microsoft (MSFT.US)$ (0.2% better).

Elsewhere on Wall Street, Wednesday's significant percentage gainers included:

-- $Opendoor Technologies (OPEN.US)$, up 14.5%. The homebuying platform and meme stock rose after disclosing plans in a securities filing to expand its operations to the entire U.S. market.

-- $Lyft Inc (LYFT.US)$, 13.1% better. The ride-hailing company rallied on a deal with Waymo, the self-driving-car unit of $Alphabet-C (GOOG.US)$, to jointly develop robotaxi service in Nashville, Tenn.

-- $Baidu (BIDU.US)$, 11.3% stronger. The Chinese Internet-search giant soared as part of general gains for China-based tech firms. The sector apparently rose on the view that Beijing's reported ban on Chinese companies buying Nvidia chips will strengthen domestic tech firms.

Meanwhile, Wednesday's noteworthy percentage decliners included:

-- $Gemini Space Station (GEMI.US)$, down 12.8%.The crypto-brokerage firm gave back the rest of a 63.9% pop that it enjoyed last Friday in its first trading day following an initial public offering. GEMI closed Wednesday at $24.53, down 46.5% from its $45.89 first-day peak and 12.4% below its $28 IPO price.

-- $Figure Technology Solutions (FIGR.US)$, off 8.2%. The fintech finally snapped a four-session winning streak that had seen it gain 61.9% since going public last week at $25 a share. Still, FIGR's $37.17 Wednesday close represented a 48.9% gain from its IPO pricing level.

-- $Stubhub Holdings (STUB.US)$, which fell 6.4%. The ticket reseller sank on its first trading day following an initial public offering that had priced at $23.50 a share.

Disclaimer: This presentation is for informational and educational use only and is not a recommendation or endorsement of any particular investment or investment strategy. Indexes are unmanaged and cannot be directly invested in. Past performance is no indication of future results. Investing involves risk and the potential to lose principal. Investment information provided in this content is general in nature, strictly for illustrative purposes, and may not be appropriate for all investors. It is provided without respect to individual investors' financial sophistication, financial situation, investment objectives, investing time horizon, or risk tolerance. You should consider the appropriateness of this information regarding your relevant personal circumstances before making any investment decisions. Past investment performance does not indicate or guarantee future success. Returns will vary, and all investments carry risks, including loss of principal.

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