S&P 500 down forty points after Hawkish Fed knocks back equities

S&P 500 falls alongside major US equity indexes on Fed outlook.
Federal Reserve holds rates steady at 5.5%, but sees rates higher longer.
US equities declined across the board on Wednesday after the Federal Reserve (Fed) signaled that rates might be staying higher for longer than previously expected.

Joshua Gibson FXStreet

Fed Chair Jerome Powell stood pat on interest rates, leaving the benchmark rate at 5.5% as markets broadly expected, but the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) raised their rate projections looking forward, seeing 5.1% for 2024's end-of-year rate, versus the previous 4.6%.

Fed officials also signaled they might be raising rates one more time this year, but Fed head Powell noted that this could very well be the peak of the rate hike cycle.

Fed dot plot points to one more 25 bps hike in 2023 and 50 bps cut in 2024

Prior to Wednesday's Fed showing, markets were anticipating a full percentage point cut from the Fed by the end of 2024, rather than the half-point currently on the books.

The Standard and Poor's (S&P) 500 equity index slid 40 forty points through Wednesday, ending the day down 0.94% into $4,402.20.

The NASDAQ Composite index tumbled 1.53% to end the day at $13,469.13, while the Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA) managed to hold on through Wednesday, ending the day down a meager 0.22%. The DJIA closed out the Wednesday market session near $34,440.00.

S&P 500 technical outlook

The S&P 500 spent much of the early part of Wednesday in the green, trading into $4,460.00 from the day's open near $4,440.00. However, the hawkish Fed outlook sent equities tumbling, sending the index down to close out the day at $4,400.

Hourly candles see the S&P 500 set to slide further after losing the week's bottom from $4,415.00, and a lower highs pattern is firming up on the charts.

On the daily candlesticks, the S&P 500 is set to take a run into the 100-day Simple Moving Average (SMA) near $4,382.00, while the 200-day SMA rests far below current price action near $4,200.00.

S&P 500 daily chart

S&P 500 technical levels

SP 500

Overview
Today last price	4400.58
Today Daily Change	-41.08
Today Daily Change %	-0.92
Today daily open	4441.66

Trends
Daily SMA20	4465.91
Daily SMA50	4484.68
Daily SMA100	4379.82
Daily SMA200	4192.63

Levels
Previous Daily High	4460.67
Previous Daily Low	4414.61
Previous Weekly High	4514.93
Previous Weekly Low	4445.7
Previous Monthly High	4590.64
Previous Monthly Low	4337.34
Daily Fibonacci 38.2%	4432.2
Daily Fibonacci 61.8%	4443.08
Daily Pivot Point S1	4417.29
Daily Pivot Point S2	4392.92
Daily Pivot Point S3	4371.23
Daily Pivot Point R1	4463.35
Daily Pivot Point R2	4485.04
Daily Pivot Point R3	4509.41

Author

Joshua Gibson

FXStreet

Joshua joins the FXStreet team as an Economics and Finance double major from Vancouver Island University with twelve years' experience as an independent trader focusing on technical analysis.

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