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Informist, Thursday, Jan. 29, 2026                                      Tel +91 (22) 6985-4000

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Equity Alert: US indices end flat-to-higher Wed; US Fed keeps rates unchanged

 

MUMBAI--0746 IST--US equity indices ended flat-to-higher Wednesday with the S&P 500 surpassing the 7000-point benchmark for the first time before ending in the red. The Nasdaq Composite and Dow Jones Industrial Average ended just a touch higher.

 

The US Federal Open Market Committee kept its benchmark rates unchanged at 3.50–3.75% in line with estimates. US Treasury yields moved higher. The country's central bank said economic activity has been expanding at a solid rate, with the unemployment rate showing signs of stabilisation, CNBC reported. "I think, and many of my colleagues think, it's hard to look at the incoming data and say the policy is significantly restrictive at this time," US Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell was reported as saying.

 

The central bank is expected to keep its rates unchanged until Powell's tenure comes to a close in May, according to Jed Ellerbroek of Argent Capital Management, CNBC reported. "There's a little bit of tension between inflation being a little bit higher than they want and unemployment rising, and so they're in a roughly neutral position, and they're comfortable sitting there until the data changes and forces them to pick a side," the analyst was reported as saying. "The ball moves into President Trump's court now, because he will be nominating the new Fed chair," he added. 

 

Shares of Seagate Technology surged 19% after the company's quarterly earnings and revenue beat analysts' expectations. Chief Executive Officer Dave Mosely cited strong demand for artificial intelligence data storage as the reason behind the strong numbers for the quarter. ASML Holding also reported record orders and gave optimistic guidance for 2026 due to the AI boom, CNBC reported. However, shares of the company ended 2% lower. Shares of Starbucks ended 0.6% lower. The company managed to beat expectations for its revenue at $9.92 billion against estimates of $9.67 billion, but its earnings per share came in at $56 cents against estimates of $59 cents, according to a report by CNBC citing estimates from LSEG. 

 

Microsoft, Meta Platforms, Tesla announced their earnings after the closing bell. Meta's revenue for the quarter came in at $59.89 billion against estimates of $58.59 billion estimated by LSEG, CNBC said. Meta also said it expects its first quarter sales for 2026, to come in the range of $53.50 billion and $56.50 billion, more than $51.41 billion estimated by analysts. Microsoft reported a revenue of $81.27 billion against $80.27 billion estimated by LSEG, CNBC said. Tesla reported a revenue of $24.90 billion against estimates of $24.79 billion by LSEG. "Auto sales have been sluggish in recent quarters for Tesla, as the company faces an onslaught of competition in various parts of the world, most notably from BYD in China," CNBC said. 

 

Following are the closing levels of US indices Wednesday:  

 

Index	Level	Change in %
S&P 500	6978.03	(-)0.01
NASDAQ Composite	23857.45	0.17
Dow Jones Industrial Average	49015.60	0.02

 

(Akshat Saksena)

 

US$1 = INR 91.78

IST, or Indian Standard Time, is five-and-a-half hours ahead of GMT

 

Edited by Vandana Hingorani

 

All prices from National Stock Exchange, unless otherwise specified.

All percentage changes for share prices are rounded off to the nearest whole number; percentage changes for index values are rounded off to one decimal place.

All times are Indian Standard Time.

 

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