Stocks Ended Mostly Lower after Fed Kept Rates on Hold

U.S. stocks ended mostly lower on Wednesday after the Federal Reserve left interest rates unchanged. The Dow Jones Industrial Average ticked up 8.01 points, or 0.04%, to 20,957.90. The S&P 500 shed 3.04 points, or 0.13%, to 2,388.13. The Nasdaq Composite fell 22.82 points, or 0.37%, to 6,072.55.

Federal Reserve officials remained on track to gradually tighten monetary policy after leaving interest rates unchanged and signaling they were not alarmed by recent U.S. economic weakness.

U.S. oil prices settled with a modest gain Wednesday after government report revealed that domestic crude supplies fell for a fourth consecutive week, but the decline was much less than the market expected. June West Texas Intermediate crude rose 16 cents, or 0.3%, to settle at $47.82 a barrel. July Brent crude added 33 cents, or 0.7%, to $50.79 a barrel.

Facebook (FB) released its 2017 first quarter earnings results that came in above what analysts were looking for this past quarter. Earnings per share came in at $1.04 on revenue of $8.03 billion for the three month period that ended in March. Facebook reported earnings of 77 cents on revenue of $5.38 billion for the same period in 2016.