LONDON (ShareCast) - US stocks slid on Wednesday, after the Federal Reserve's policy-making committee reiterated it plans to remain patient and watch the data as it decides when to raise interest rates.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed 195.84 points down at 17,191.37, while the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq ended the session down 1.35% and 0.93% respectively.

As expected, the Fed maintained its stance on the interest rates, saying it "can be patient in beginning to normalise the stance of monetary policy".

That language is widely interpreted as meaning that the Fed won't begin to hike rates from near-zero for at least another two Federal Open Market Committee meetings.

"The bigger picture is still that stronger economic growth and lower unemployment will eventually put more upward pressure on prices and wages," analysts at Capital Economics said in a note.

"Accordingly, we still expect a June lift-off, with the fed funds rate reaching a target of between 1.00% and 1.25% by end-2015 and 2.75% to 3.00% by end-2016. That implies a considerably more aggressive tightening that either Fed officials or the markets currently anticipate."

Some experts went as far as suggesting they feared interest rates might not be raised in September, as inflation remains too low.

"There are fears inflation is too low to even think about raising interest rates, but we still expect rates to rise in mid-2015 in line with the long-term strategy of Yellen and her Fed colleagues," said Dennis de Jong, managing director at UFX.com.

In corporate news, Apple shares soared 6.13% after the company said late on Tuesday night that it had sold 74.5m iPhones in the first quarter and profit rose 38% to a record high.

Boeing rose 5.40% after the company's fourth-quarter earnings beat forecasts, while US Steel surged 10.86% after the steel producer's earnings beat analysts' expectations.

Abiomed Inc. jumped 29.17% after the medical device maker posted earnings that were much better of Wall Street estimates, while Yahoo! declined 3.08% after jumping as rising as much as 7% after the bell on Tuesday when it announced it intends to spin off its stake in Alibaba.

Energy stocks suffered heavy losses as oil prices fell over 3%, with Denbury Resources and Cabot OIl & Gas Corp losing 9.38% and 4.88% respectively.

Oil prices tumbled after a larger-than-expected increase in US crude supplies kept inventories at their highest level in 80 years. CrudeWest Texas Intermediate crude plunged 4.5% to $44.24 a barrel, while Brent shed over 2% and ended the session at $48.44 a barrel.

Gold futures fell 0.5% to 1,284.70, while the dollar gained 0.2% against the pound and 0.7% against the euro but lost 0.3% against the yen.


S&P 500 - Risers
Electronic Arts Inc. (EA) $54.59 +12.77%
United States Steel Corp. (X) $23.58 +10.86%
Total System Services Inc. (TSS) $36.42 +6.43%
Apple Inc. (AAPL) $115.31 +5.65%
Boeing Co. (BA) $139.64 +5.40%
TE Connectivity Ltd (TEL) $67.45 +4.36%
Juniper Networks Inc. (JNPR) $22.65 +3.76%
Western Digital Corp. (WDC) $99.83 +2.25%
Mattel Inc. (MAT) $26.99 +1.81%
Adt Corp (ADT) $34.38 +1.75%

S&P 500 - Fallers
Nabors Industries Ltd. (NBR) $10.49 -11.70%
Denbury Resources Inc. (DNR) $6.47 -9.38%
Hess Corp. (HES) $66.02 -7.81%
National Oilwell Varco Inc. (NOV) $53.53 -7.23%
Murphy Oil Corp. (MUR) $43.40 -7.23%
Noble Corporation plc (NE) $15.98 -7.09%
Pioneer Natural Resources Co. (PXD) $144.55 -6.81%
Helmerich & Payne Inc. (HP) $59.67 -6.49%
QEP Resources Inc (QEP) $19.54 -6.01%
Devon Energy Corp. (DVN) $58.43 -5.91%

Dow Jones I.A - Risers
Boeing Co. (BA) $139.64 +5.40%
Caterpillar Inc. (CAT) $80.01 +0.20%
3M Co. (MMM) $163.94 +0.19%

Dow Jones I.A - Fallers
Chevron Corp. (CVX) $103.71 -4.20%
Microsoft Corp. (MSFT) $41.19 -3.45%
Exxon Mobil Corp. (XOM) $87.95 -3.30%
JP Morgan Chase & Co. (JPM) $54.75 -2.58%
General Electric Co. (GE) $23.84 -2.21%
E.I. du Pont de Nemours and Co. (DD) $71.71 -2.01%
Pfizer Inc. (PFE) $31.95 -1.99%
Goldman Sachs Group Inc. (GS) $173.05 -1.95%
United Technologies Corp. (UTX) $116.92 -1.88%
Visa Inc. (V) $246.36 -1.84%

Nasdaq 100 - Risers
Apple Inc. (AAPL) $115.31 +5.65%
Western Digital Corp. (WDC) $99.83 +2.25%
Mattel Inc. (MAT) $26.99 +1.81%
Nxp Semiconductors Nv (NXPI) $79.13 +1.41%
Activision Blizzard Inc. (ATVI) $20.67 +0.98%
Seagate Technology Plc (STX) $57.53 +0.81%
Facebook Inc. (FB) $76.24 +0.61%
Monster Beverage Corp (MNST) $119.21 +0.34%
Avago Technologies Ltd. (AVGO) $105.00 +0.20%
O'Reilly Automotive Inc. (ORLY) $191.27 +0.16%

Nasdaq 100 - Fallers
Vimpelcom Ltd Ads (VIP) $3.44 -4.71%
Charter Communications Inc. (CHTR) $150.60 -3.72%
Microsoft Corp. (MSFT) $41.19 -3.45%
Tesla Motors Inc (TSLA) $199.22 -3.28%
Liberty Media Corporation - Class A (LMCA) $34.32 -3.24%
Yahoo! Inc. (YHOO) $46.44 -3.23%
Baidu Inc. (BIDU) $220.31 -3.17%
Comcast Corp. (CMCSA) $54.59 -3.13%
Autodesk Inc. (ADSK) $54.59 -2.78%
Celgene Corp. (CELG) $118.97 -2.77%

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