NEW YORK (AA) – The stock market opened mixed Thursday as investors are divided whether the Federal Reserve would raise interest rates in September.
The Dow Jones was down 24 points to begin the day at 18,448 and the S&P 500 was flat after trimming 1 point to 2,165. However, the Nasdaq was up 8 points to 5,148, thanks to gains in tech stocks.
Although the Fed did not raise interest rates on Wednesday, it added new wording to its July statement.
The new language — “near-term risks to the economic outlook have diminished” — was viewed by some analysts as a signal that the Fed could introduce a rate hike at its meeting in September, causing indecisiveness among investors and leaving the market in search for direction.
Meanwhile, as the U.S. tech companies continue to post second quarter earnings better than market expectations, both the stocks and the Nasdaq continue to gain.
Facebook’s quarterly revenue rose by 59 percent, while income jumped by 186 percent. The social media giant’s mobile daily active users surpassed the 1 billion threshold.
As a result, the company’s share value jumped 4 percent after the first bell, climbing as high as $128.33 before 2:00 p.m. GMT, from previous closing mark of $123.34.
