Investing.com - Stocks opened little changed Wednesday as investors looked ahead to this afternoon’s interest rate decision by the Federal Reserve.
The Dow rose 27.64, or 0.1%, to 26,519.85, while the broader S&P 500 index rose 4.15, or 0.14%, to 2,919.71. The tech-heavy Nasdaq composite gained 7.79, or 0.1%, to 8,015.27.
The market is pricing in a 100% chance that the Fed raises rates by 25 basis points this afternoon. So, attention will be on the statement and Fed Chairman Jerome Powell’s press conference.
Given the strong economic data of late, investors will be keen to see if the Fed is moving in a more hawkish direction or whether it’s still very firm on its plan for gradual rate hikes. Another rise is expected in the December meeting.
The latest numbers on new home sales will arrive at 10:00 AM ET (14:00 GMT), the last major set of numbers before the Fed announcement.
In the financial sector, which outperforms in a rising-rate environment, JPMorgan (NYSE:JPM) edged up 0.1%, Citigroup (NYSE:C) lost 0.2% and Goldman Sachs (NYSE:GS) fell 0.4%.
In the tech sector, the Senate Commerce Committee is holding a hearing entitled Examining Safeguards for Consumer Data Privacy starting this morning.
Attending the hearing will be executives form AT&T (NYSE:T), Amazon.com (NASDAQ:AMZN), Google (NASDAQ:GOOGL), Twitter (NYSE:TWTR), Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) and Charter Communications (NASDAQ:CHTR).
Among active individual stocks, Nike (NYSE:NKE) stock fell 2.8% after it announced slightly disappointing sales growth numbers.
CarMax (NYSE:KMX) stock jumped 3.8% after the company reported better than expected earnings.
And KB Home (NYSE:KBH) stock gained 3% after reporting quarterly earnings of 87 cents per share, topping expectations.
Meanwhile, SurveyMonkey will make its debut on the Nasdaq after raising $180 million in its initial public offering. Demand for the stock looks good after the company boosted the number of shares it offered and priced above its range. It will trade under the symbol SVMK.
In Europe, stocks were mixed. Germany’s DAX fell 33.21 points, or 0.27%, while in France the CAC 40 rose 14.82 points, or 0.27%, and in London, the FTSE 100 was down 13.17 points, or 0.18%. Meanwhile the pan-European Euro Stoxx 50 rose 4.83 points, or 0.14%, while Spain’s IBEX 35 rose 19.15 points, or 0.2%.
In commodities, gold futures fell 0.46% to $1,199.60 a troy ounce, while crude oil futures lost 0.62% to $71.83 a barrel. The U.S. dollar index, which measures the greenback against a basket of six major currencies, rose 0.26% to 94.38.