Wall Street Today: Nasdaq Composite Closes at Record, But S&P 500 and DJIA Ease on Powell Remarks

The Nasdaq Composite closed at an all-time high Wednesday following a Federal Reserve rate cut, but the S&P 500 and Dow-30 pulled back from record territory after Fed Chair Jerome Powell said markets shouldn't assume further easing is coming.

The DJIA shed 74.37 points (0.2%) to 47,632, while the SPX gave back 0.3 ticks (0.004%) to 6,890.59. Both indexes had closed at record highs for the past three sessions.

The three indexes had been trading at record-high levels for much of Wednesday as the Fed announced a widely expected 25-point cut in its benchmark Federal Funds rate, taking the key interest measure down to a 3.75%-4% range.

The central bank reduced the rate following its regularly scheduled policy meeting, aiming to prevent a feared U.S. employment slowdown while still avoiding excess inflation. The Fed also cut the rate by 25 points at its previous meeting in September.

However, the S&P 500 and DJIA turned negative after Powell said at a news conference that followed the latest decision that markets shouldn't assume the Fed will ease even further at its December policy session.

"A further reduction in the policy rate at the December meeting is not a forgone conclusion -- far from it," he said.

Wall Street had been expecting at least one more 25-point cut in December and didn't take kindly to Powell's remarks.

The stock market generally likes Fed rate cuts because they tend to lower bond and money-market yields, often driving equities prices higher as investors look for better returns.

Powell's comments offset several other positives that had been sending Wall Street higher Wednesday.

For example, investors widely expect U.S. President Donald Trump and Chinese leader Xi Jinping to finalize a trade truce when they meet on Thursday Asia time at a South Korean economic summit.

On Wednesday, a live microphone at the summit captured Trump telling other world leaders that "we're going to have something that's going to be very, very satisfactory to China and to us. I think it's going to be a very good meeting. I look forward to it tomorrow morning when we meet."

Adding to what had been a positive session, several important stocks rose to record highs Wednesday on positive news.

Despite the broad market's mixed finish, the "Magnificent Seven" stocks ended Wednesday's session mostly higher.

The Mag-7 stocks mostly rose even as markets awaited earnings after the bell Wednesday from Alphabet, Microsoft and Meta.

Elsewhere in the market, Wednesday's other noteworthy percentage decliners included:

Separately, Wednesday's major percentage gainers included: