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Stocks Close Higher After Fed Hold as Tech Earnings Land

The S&P 500 and the Nasdaq each closed up about 0.3 percent and the Dow gained about 0.2 percent on Wednesday after the Federal Reserve held rates steady, and after-hours trading split the big tech reports as Microsoft rose and Alphabet fell.

By Orbit Post2 min read
Read inENESNEHIFR
Stocks Close Higher After Fed Hold as Tech Earnings Land

Key points

  • Stocks closed slightly higher on Wednesday, October 28, 2026, after the Federal Reserve held interest rates steady in a decision the market had expected.
  • The Fed kept its target range at 3.75 percent to 4.00 percent.
  • The closing bell handed the market to the technology reports.

Stocks closed slightly higher on Wednesday, October 28, 2026, after the Federal Reserve held interest rates steady in a decision the market had expected. The S&P 500 closed up about 0.3 percent, the Nasdaq Composite gained about 0.3 percent and the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose about 0.2 percent, USA Today reported. Reuters put the same figures in its end-of-day market wrap, with eight of the eleven S&P 500 sectors rising, technology up 0.5 percent and real estate down 0.7 percent.

The Fed kept its target range at 3.75 percent to 4.00 percent. Going into the meeting, traders had put the chance of no change at more than 90 percent in CME FedWatch pricing, and the statement and Chair Kevin Warsh's news conference brought no surprise large enough to move the close. Stocks stayed flat to slightly higher through the afternoon announcement. Orbit Post reported the decision and the Warsh news conference in its Fed coverage earlier in the day.

After hours, earnings took over

The closing bell handed the market to the technology reports. Reuters reported Microsoft up about 6 percent and Alphabet down about 10 percent in after-hours trading after both companies published quarterly results. Oracle had already jumped about 11 percent in the regular session after its analyst day targets, Reuters noted, on a day when chip stocks also rose, with Micron up 5.6 percent and AMD up 2.6 percent in the trading updates.

Other markets moved on the same news flow. Reuters reported the US dollar down 0.2 percent on the day, Brent crude up 1.5 percent and US crude up 3 percent. The yield curve steepened after the Warsh news conference, Reuters said. In Asia, South Korea's market had closed up about 7 percent earlier in the global day on SK Hynix's record results, the same chip strength that lifted US semiconductor names.

Why it matters

Wednesday showed the order of forces in this market. A central bank decision that everyone expected moved stocks by tenths of a percent. Single company reports on AI spending moved individual shares by 6 to 11 percent in hours. For investors, the rate path matters over months. The earnings path is setting prices day by day.

What comes next

Thursday brings the European Central Bank decision and Amazon earnings after the US close, and Friday brings the Bank of Japan. Traders will also get the first full session to price the Microsoft and Alphabet reports, which point in opposite directions on the same AI spending question.

Sources