Investing.com – Wall Street was on edge with stocks straddling the flat line after a slew of mixed data was published stateside, oil staged a rebound and market participants appeared content to sit on the fence while waiting for the Federal Reserve’s (Fed) policy decision and the press conference from the U.S. central bank’s chief Janet Yellen.
At 15:45GMT or 11:45AM ET, the Dow 30 rose 11 points or 0.06%, while the S&P 500 inched up 2 points or 0.10% and the tech-heavy NASDAQ Composite gained 13 points or 0.27%.
In a data-packed date, special note was taken of U.S. inflation data for February.
Although headline inflation fell in line with market expectations, the core CPI, which excludes food and energy and is thus generally considered by the Fed to be a better gauge of longer-term inflationary pressure, rose more than expected.
Year-on-year, the core CPI increased by 2.3%, a fact that could give fuel to the Fed hawks’ argument that the U.S. central bank should not wait too long to resume tightening monetary policy.
In any case, market participants will likely wait to make big moves until the release of the FOMC statement at 18:00GMT, or 14:00ET, published simultaneously with updated economic projections from Fed members, including the dot plot that shows Fed members’ forecasts for the future path of interest rates.
Although no change in interest rates is expected at this meeting, the former will be sifted through with a fine-toothed comb to detect any minute change in the language, especially with regard to the balance of risks, while the latter will be closely watched to determine the outlook for the economy, prices and Fed expectations for the next rate hike.
30 minutes after the release, market attention will shift to the tone of the press conference with Janet Yellen as investors look for indications for the future path of monetary policy.
With regard to the rest of Wednesday’s macro data, February housing starts jumped a more-than-expected 5.2%, but building permits, considered a leading indicator for the real estate market, slumped 3.1%, dampening optimism for the housing recovery.
February industrial production produced a sour note with a bigger-than-forecast decline, although manufacturing output managed to edge up slightly more than consensus had estimated.
Meanwhile, crude bounced back from its recent 2-day rout after OPEC and non-OPEC producers agreed to hold their next meeting on a plan to freeze output levels in Doha, Qatar on April 17, even without the attendance of Iran.
Oil prices later pushed even higher after bullish weekly stockpile data. The U.S. Energy Information Administration said in its weekly report that crude oil inventories rose by 1.3 million barrels in the week ended March 11. Market analysts' expected a crude-stock rise of 3.4 million barrels.
The report also showed that gasoline inventories decreased by 0.7 million barrels, compared to expectations for a drop of 2.4 million barrels, while distillate stockpiles fell by 1.1 million barrels.
After markets closed Tuesday, the American Petroleum Institute, an industry group, said that U.S. oil inventories rose by just 1.5 million barrels in the week ended March 11, its lowest increase in four weeks and well below forecasts for a gain of 3.4 million barrels.
U.S. crude futures jumped 4.05% to $37.81 by 15:49GMT or 11:49AM ET, while Brent oil gained 3.59% to $40.13.
In a light business calendar, investors reacted to an upbeat earnings report from Oracle (NYSE:ORCL) released after the market close on Tuesday. Shares in the business software company jumped 4.3%.
Later, traders will watch the earnings report from FedEx (NYSE:FDX) after the close, as the world-wide package delivery company is considered a bellwether of demand in the global economy.