Stocks Slide after Fed Statement

U.S. stocks declined on Wednesday after the Federal Reserve dropped the unemployment rate as its definitive yardstick for gauging the U.S. economy’s strength. At the close, the Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 114.02 points, or 0.70%, to 16,222.17. The S&P 500 fell 11.48 points, or 0.61%, at 1,860.77. The Nasdaq Composite lost 25.71 points, or 0.59%, at 4,307.60.

The Federal Reserve on Wednesday pushed forward with plans to slowly wind down its stimulus but said it will likely need to keep rates low even after the economy regains its health given lasting scars from the financial crisis. The Federal Reserve dropped linkage between borrowing costs and a specific level of unemployment and said it will look at a wide range of data in determining when to raise its benchmark interest rate, while pledging to keep monetary policy easy.

Apple Inc said it would offer an iPad 4 tablet in place of the mid-range iPad 2 at the same price and the company launched a cheaper, lower capacity version of its plastic-backed iPhone 5C in Australia, China and some European countries.

Activist investor Carl Icahn has hatched a new plot in his ongoing quest to get eBay to spinoff its online payment service PayPal. Icahn advocates for a partial IPO of PayPal, in which eBay would sell off 20 percent of the company in a public offering.