And as those comments from Fed Chairman Jerome Powell dampened expectations the central bank could move later this year, or any time soon, to cut interest rates...
U.S. stocks ended lower on Wednesday and the S&P 500 snapped a three-day streak of record high closes.
The Dow dropped more than 160 points after Powell dashed rate-cut hopes while the S&P 500 pulled back eigh-tenths of a percent. For the S&P 500, it was its worst day posting since March 22nd.
The Nasdaq declined six-tenths of a percent to close trading at a little over 8-thousand-and-49.
The Korean market and some European markets were closed for the Labor Day holiday.
Meanwhile, it was a monumental day for Microsoft. While its rivals showed disappointing revenues, Microsoft has been firing on all cylinders... and at the closing bell today... was rewarded for the first time with a trillion dollar valuation. MS is now only the third ever publicly-traded U.S. company, after Amazon and Google, to achieve a market valuation of one trillion dollars.
Oil prices fell on Wednesday after U.S. crude inventories in the U.S soared more than expected to their highest since September 2017 as production hit a record high.
The declines were somewhat tempered by the intensifying crisis in Venezuela and Washington's cessation of Iranian oil sanction waivers as of May 1st... with the fall in the global Brent benchmark more muted.
Crude futures bounced slightly along with the stock market after the Fed held its interest rates.
The Brent Crude was up a tenth of a percent at 72-dollars-and 14-cents a barrel and the lighters West Texas Intermediate is trading down one half a percent at 63-61.