Investing.com – While waiting for the publication of the Federal Reserve’s (Fed) monetary policy decision, U.S. stocks traded lower on Wednesday as Apple’s slump put pressure on the principal indices and oil turned around on weekly inventory data out stateside.
At 15:59GMT, or 13:59ET, the Dow Jones slipped 4 points, or 0.02%, while the S&P 500 edged up 6 points, or 0.26%, and the tech-heavy NASDAQ Composite traded down 59 points, or 1.33%.
The dollar registered little movement as market players were waiting for the Federal Reserve (Fed) to announce its monetary policy decision at 18:00GMT, or 14:00ET.
Markets were not expecting any action to be taken on interest rates, but focus will be placed on the statement and the Fed’s stance on the economic backdrop in an attempt to gauge whether the Fed could leave the door open for the next meeting in June.
Meanwhile, Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) sank around 6%, leading the Dow lower after quarterly earnings and future guidance disappointed markets. The first-ever drop in quarterly iPhone sales may spur the California tech company to focus on its services business in an already highly competitive field.
Other Dow components fared better in the market as United Technologies Corporation (NYSE:UTX) rose 0.7% thanks to better than expected earnings and Boeing Company (NYSE:BA) gained a slight 0.3% despite its profit being hit by a tanker charge.
Outside the blue chip index, Twitter (NYSE:TWTR) plunged more than 16% after reporting revenue and guidance that missed consensus despite its turnaround effort. The company continued to struggle with stagnant user growth facing fierce competition from Facebook (NASDAQ:FB).
Facebook and Texas Instruments were scheduled to report after the market close.
On the economic front, pending home sales had little impact on the market despite posting a better than expected rise in March.
Initially, West Texas registered strong gains marking a five-month thanks to a surprise drop in U.S. oil inventories reported by the industry group American Petroleum Institute after the market close on Tuesday.
However, black gold staged a turn around on Wednesday when the official government report showed that inventories had in fact increased by 1.999 million barrels.
"At 538.6 million barrels, U.S. crude oil inventories are at historically high levels for this time of year," the Energy Information Administration said in the report.
In this context, U.S. crude futures gained 3.24% to $44.01 a barrel by 16:01GMT, or 14:01ET, while Brent oil traded up 3.09% to $45.69.