New York (AFP)

Wall Street closed slightly higher on Wednesday as the US central bank (Fed) seems ready to leave rates unchanged for some time and waiting for more concrete information on trade negotiations between Washington and Beijing.

Its flagship index, the Dow Jones Industrial Average, rose 0.11% to 27,911.30 points.

Nasdaq, with its strong technological color, appreciated by 0.44% to 8,654.05 points and the broad S & P 500 index by 0.29% to 3,141.63 points.

Investors were watching Wednesday's latest monetary meeting of the year, which has decided to pause after already lowering rates three times this year to deal with trade tensions and weak global growth. The decision to keep them in the range of 1.50% to 1.75% was unanimous.

As Donald Trump calls for ever deeper interest rate cuts, the central bank has also signaled that it could leave rates unchanged by 2020.

- Hard blow for Boeing -

"It's a bit presumptuous of them to make such long-term forecasts as the economic situation or inflation may change in the meantime," said Bill Lynch of Hinsdale Associates. "But given the relatively modest growth and still relatively low inflation, the Fed probably can not justify changing its monetary policy for the moment," he added.

Trade remained moderate throughout the session because "many investors are waiting to see whether or not the Trump administration will implement December 15 tariffs she spoke," said Mr. Lynch.

If the Wall Street Journal reported Tuesday that these additional duties on about $ 160 billion worth of Chinese property could be postponed, the chief economic adviser of the White House assured that they were still under discussion.

On the bond market, the 10-year rate on US debt fell to 1.791% around 21H30 GMT against 1.842% at the close on Tuesday.

On the stock front, Boeing appreciated 0.60%.

The boss of the US Federal Aviation Agency (FAA) Steve Dickson said Wednesday that the 737 MAX will not revolve until 2020. If it is a blow for the aircraft manufacturer, who claimed to be able to get the green light from regulator in December, the markets already anticipated more or less this decision since the major airlines had already canceled all their scheduled flights on this device until March.

Home and DIY Home Depot, also a member of the Dow Jones, dropped 1.81% after unveiling new forecasts for 2020.

Oil giant Chevron, which announced Tuesday night a depreciation of the value of its assets from 10 to 11 billion dollars to cope with the abundance of hydrocarbons fueled by the shale energy boom, lost 1.41% .

Its competitor ExxonMobil fell 0.14% while ConocoPhillips lost 0.13%.

GameStop video game seller dropped 15.05% after downgrading its annual forecasts.

© 2019 AFP