US Stocks Close Lower After Fed Raises Rates 25 Basis Points; Warsh Says Inflation Is Too High for Too Long

U.S. stocks opened higher and then turned lower after the Federal Reserve raised its benchmark rate by 25 basis points to a range of 3.75% to 4.00%. According to Sina Finance, Fed Chair Kevin Warsh said he and his fellow policymakers were not satisfied with the current pace of inflation and that price stability was the main focus of the Fed's mandate. The Dow fell 1.21%, the S&P 500 lost 0.44%, and the Nasdaq slipped 0.01%. Intel rose 4.03%, Ciena rose 1.91%, Coherent Corp gained 6.81%, Lumentum Holdings Inc. climbed 9.59%, and CoreWeave added 3.00%. Among the “Magnificent Seven,” Meta Platforms rose 0.46%, Alphabet fell 0.61%, Nvidia gained 0.82%, Apple rose 0.32%, Tesla added 0.42%, Amazon fell 0.99%, and Microsoft dropped 1.37%. U.S. August consumer price index data showed year-over-year inflation easing from a recent peak of 4.2%. Monthly CPI rose 0.4%, in line with market expectations, while core CPI, which excludes food and energy, rose 0.3%, above expectations.