US STOCKS-Wall St stocks hold gains but choppy as Fed keeps rates steady,

Paycom Software

01/11/2023 18:45

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      Federal Reserve keeps rates unchanged
    

        * 
      US Treasury increases size of most debt auctions
    

        * 
      Private payrolls rise less than expected in October
    

        * 
      CVS, Estee Lauder slump on dour forecasts
    

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      Indexes up: Dow 0.32%, S&P 0.50%, Nasdaq 0.75%
    

  
 (Updated at 02:39 p.m. ET/1739 GMT)
    By Sinéad Carew and Amruta Khandekar
       Nov 1 (Reuters) - 
    The S&P 500 roughly held its gains on Wednesday although
trading was choppy as Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell began
his press conference after the U.S. central bank kept interest
rates unchanged, as expected, while acknowledging the economy's
strength. 
  
        The Fed held rates steady but left the door open to a
further increases in a policy statement that pointed to the U.S.
economy's surprising strength, but nodded to tighter financial
conditions faced by businesses and consumers.
        "The Fed left rates unchanged, as expected and made some
minor adjustments to the statement, but nothing dramatic," said
Chris Zaccarelli, chief investment officer at Independent
Advisor Alliance, Charlotte, NC noting that investors would
closely monitor Powell's press conference, which kicked off at
2:30 p.m EDT (1830 GMT)
        "Investors  will be listening very closely to Powell's
words. People will be trying to parse it. Is the bias toward
tightening or is the bias toward easing? I think everyone's
going to try to slice and dice his words to try to figure out is
the next meeting a live meeting," said Zaccarelli. 
    The Dow Jones Industrial Average  .DJI  rose 105.95 points,
or 0.32%, to 33,158.82, the S&P 500  .SPX  gained 20.88 points,
or 0.50%, to 4,214.68 and the Nasdaq Composite  .IXIC  added
96.25 points, or 0.75%, to 12,947.48.
    Ellen Hazen, chief market strategist at F.L.Putnam
Investment Management in Wellesley, Massachusetts said it was
"hard to say if we are at the end of hikes."
        "The Fed very much wants to keep the door open for
additional hikes in December or next year. They did make a few
changes to the wording, two of which reflect the assessment that
the economy is actually stronger than it was at the last
statement," said Hazen, also noting that the Fed changed its
reference to job gains from "slowed" to "moderated."
  
    "Both of those are on the positive side," Hazen said.
    Earlier the stock market got a boost from falling bond
yields after the U.S. Treasury Department said it will slow the
pace of increases in its longer-dated debt auctions in the
November-January quarter and expects it will need one more
additional quarter of increases after this to meet its financing
needs.
    Earnings has been a mixed bag for stocks even though 79.7%
of the 310 S&P 500 companies that had reported at the time of
LSEG's latest update, had beat analyst expectations for the
quarter while only 16.1% had fallen short of estimates.      
    Still investors were disappointed by many quarterly updates.
    CVS Health  CVS.N  beat estimates for quarterly profit,
though its shares fell as medical costs at its health insurance
business were high. 
    Estee Lauder  EL.N  shares tumbled after the beauty products
maker cut its annual profit outlook. And shares in Payroll
processor Paycom Software  PAYC.N  sank after it projected for 
downbeat fourth-quarter revenue.
    Tinder owner Match Group  MTCH.O  fell after it also
forecast fourth-quarter revenue below estimates.

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Rates and inflation Rates and inflation    https://tmsnrt.rs/3U8HdD2
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 (Reporting by Amruta Khandekar and Shashwat Chauhan in
Bengaluru; Editing by Sriraj Kalluvila, Dhanya Ann Thoppil, Maju
Samuel and David Gregorio)
 ((Amruta.Khandekar@thomsonreuters.com;
Shashwat.Chauhan@thomsonreuters.com))