Stock Traders ‘Sell the News’ After Fed Goes Big: Markets Wrap

A rally that briefly drove stocks to their all-time highs bumped into a wall as the Federal Reserve signaled it’s not in a rush to ease policy after cutting rates by a half-point.

The S&P 500 wiped out a gain of 1% as Jerome Powell cautioned against assuming big rate cuts would continue. While that’s not necessarily bad given that aggressive easing is usually associated with economic stress, traders ended up pushing equities near session lows at the 4 p.m. New York close.

Jerome Powell.

Photographer: Al Drago/Bloomberg.

“After a rally ahead of today’s Fed announcement, it wouldn’t be unreasonable for the market to ...