Thursday's Market Minute: Fed Makes No Change

Wednesday’s FOMC Meeting announcement yielded no surprises. The Federal Reserve unanimously voted 11-0 to make no move on asset purchases, to not remove accommodation yet, and some analysts believe the start of tapering will likely wait until the December announcement. Powell’s comments doubled down on inflation as “transitory” and offered optimism surrounding the economic consequences of the Delta strain of COVID-19.

The major U.S. stock indices had a muted ending to the day following the FOMC announcement. The S&P 500 (SPX) finished down 0.02%, the Nasdaq-100 (NDX) rose 0.4%, and the Dow Jones Industrial Avg. ($DJI) ended down 0.36%. All three indices are on track to end July higher, save for the small-cap Russell 2000 (RUT), which has lost more than 3.7% this month.

Earnings season rolls on, and we’ve seen several big tech companies posting strong quarterly reports this week, but markets didn’t respond favorably to PayPal PYPL and Facebook FB, which fell 5% and 3% respectively in after-hours trading following their reports. Despite the companies delivering beats on their top and bottom lines, both warned of significant growth slowdowns in the second half of the year.

Today’s focus will be on the first read of 2Q GDP as well as Jobless Claims, which will both be released in the morning. An annual growth rate of 8% is expected for the first estimate of GDP versus 6.4 percent in the first quarter. And after markets close today, the e-commerce giant Amazon AMZN will post 2Q earnings results.