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U.S. stocks shaved early gains to drift lower Wednesday despite cheerful earnings, as the Federal Reserve's statement and falling oil prices weighed on market sentiment.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 195.84 points, or 1.13 percent, to 17,191.37. The S&P 500 dropped 27.39 points, or 1.35 percent, to 2,002.16. The Nasdaq Composite Index was down 43.50 points, or 0.93 percent, to 4,637.99.
The Fed gave no signal Wednesday that it is backing away from plans to hike rates this year. In a statement released after a two- day meeting of its Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC), the Fed said the economic activity in U.S. has been expanding at a solid pace, compared to the wording of "at a moderate pace" in its December statement.
"The Fed is as determined to raise rates as ever, though the nod to international developments suggests the FOMC might delay rate hikes for a time if the global economy is in full-blown crisis mode. Otherwise, their assessment of the domestic economy argues for a faster rate hike," said Chris Low, chief economist at FTN Financial, in a note.
A renewed slide in oil prices sent energy stocks sharply lower Wednesday. The energy sector slumped 3.87 percent, leading the declines of the S&P 500's 10 sectors.
U.S. oil price tumbled nearly 4 percent Wednesday as U.S. crude inventories added more than expected last week. Light, sweet crude for March delivery lost 1.78 U.S. dollars to settle at 44.45 dollars a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange.
However, quarterly earnings came out upbeat Wednesday. Apple shares surged 5.65 percent to 115.31 dollars apiece after its first-quarter earnings of 2015 beat analyst expectations.
The tech giant's financial results, announced after the close of markets Tuesday, showed that its quarterly revenue was 74.6 billion U.S. dollars and quarterly net profit was 18 billion dollars, the largest quarterly profit in corporate history. These results were fueled by all-time record revenue from iPhone and Mac sales as well as record performance of the App Store.
"We'd like to thank our customers for an incredible quarter, which saw demand for Apple products soar to an all-time high," said Tim Cook, Apple's chief executive officer.
Boeing shares jumped 5.40 percent to 139.64 dollars apiece after its better-than-expected quarterly earnings. The company reported record the fourth-quarter revenue of 24.5 billion dollars on higher deliveries, reflecting strong performance across the company.
Latest data from Thomson Reuters showed that S&P 500 companies' per-share earnings in the fourth quarter are expected to grow 4.4 percent year on year, while revenue growth is forecast to increase 1.4 percent. Thomson Reuters upwardly revised the forecasts after Apple's quarterly results, as the tech giant is the most influential company in the index.
