us stock indexes were mostly lower on wednesday afternoon after the federal reserve raised interest rates by 25 basis points to a range of 525 to 55 the highest level in 22 years investors were looking ahead to chair jerome powells press conference due at 230 pm eastern for more clues on how much more policy tightening might be warranted to curb inflation on tuesday the dow jones industrial average rose 27 points or 008 to 35 438 the sp 500 increased 13 points or 028 to 4567 and the nasdaq composite gained 86 points or 061 to 14145 the federal reserve on wednesday raised its benchmark interest rate by a quarterpoint to a range of 52555 the highest level in 22 years as was widely expected the central bank also left the door open to more rate hikes later this year with policymakers signaling a willingness to do more to bring elevated inflation down to a 2 yearly target stockmarket traders were avoiding bold bets following the feds monetary policy decision at 2 pm eastern with investors remaining uncertain whether the latest 25basispoint boost would mark the end of the feds most aggressive monetary tightening cycle in four decades or not the feds policy statement indicated that more work may be still needed on interest rates to get inflation back down to 2 in a statement the fed said that it remained highly attentive to inflation risks and the committee will continue to assess additional information and its implications for monetary policy the statement also kept language that the central bank would look at the data the cumulative monetary tightening to date and the lags with which interestrate policy affects the economy in determining the extend of additional policy firming that may be appropriate consequently it is likely comments from chair jerome powell at his press conference starting at 230 pm eastern time that will carry greater heft while the cpi has cooled off to 3 on july 12th we are still below the feds target level of 2 this leads us to believe that the fomc will continue to target optionality at each upcoming meeting based on where economic data prints in the coming weeks and months said victor masotti director of repo trading at clear street additionally powell will be giving remarks at next months jackson hole economic symposium in wyoming where the market will also be seeking clarity on rate moves for the september and november fomc meetings futures markets are pricing in a 361 chance of an additional hike this year after wednesdays meeting while also pricing in the first full rate cut for july 2024 according to cme fedwatch tool see heres how stocks bonds and the dollar have traded on every fed day over the past year the sp 500 and the techheavy nasdaq composite traded lower on wednesday after a mixed bag of big tech earnings dragged the market down while the dow jones industrial average edged higher attempting to log its 13th straight gain if the bluechip gauge finishes higher it would be the longest winning run since 1987 according to dow jones market data meanwhile investors on wednesday were digesting more corporate earnings shares in tech behemoths microsoft msft and alphabet googl went in opposite directions following their results and guidance late on tuesday traders are in the middle of a week in which about 170 companies from the sp 500 representing roughly 40 of the benchmarks market capitalization will report their earnings the results of att t boeing ba cocacola ko and general dynamics gd were also published early wednesday while meta platforms meta lam research lrcx and ebay ebay will feature after the close in us economic data us new home sales fell 25 to an annual rate of 697000 in june from a revised 715000 in the prior month the commerce department reported wednesday this content was created by marketwatch which is operated by dow jones  co marketwatch is published independently from dow jones newswires and the wall street journal