New York (AFP)

Wall Street finished close to balance on Wednesday after the Federal Reserve's decision to keep interest rates unchanged and an avalanche of results from companies listed on the New York Stock Exchange.

Its flagship index, the Dow Jones Industrial Average, rose 0.04% to 28,734.45 points.

The Nasdaq, with a strong technological coloring, gleaned 0.04% at 9,275.16 points.

The S&P 500, which represents the 500 largest companies on Wall Street, however yielded 0.09% to 3,273.40 points.

The main indices of the New York index evolved in green throughout the session, but eased slightly before the close, starting to weaken after the first meeting of the Fed's monetary policy and after comments from its president.

As widely anticipated, the US central bank kept its key rates unchanged in the range of 1.50% to 1.75%.

The head of the institution Jerome Powell, however, stressed at a press conference that the new coronavirus in China created uncertainty for the global economic outlook.

Wednesday's session was also punctuated by numerous results from S&P 500 companies.

McDonald's reported better-than-expected results in the last quarter of 2019 thanks to solid growth in global sales. The action of the giant of the fast food took 1.92%.

General Electric (+ 10.32%) also exceeded expectations thanks in particular to a slight improvement in its Energy division.

Boeing has announced its first annual loss in 22 years due to the setbacks of the 737 MAX, nailed to the ground since March after two fatal accidents.

The bill linked to the MAX crisis, which now stands at $ 18.4 billion, is nevertheless at the bottom of the range of analysts which was $ 16-25 billion. Boeing's share gained 1.72%.

In contrast, Starbucks (-2.73%), AT&T (-3.97%) and EBay (-4.5%) fell after posting a mixed health report.

Meanwhile, Apple, which posted an Olympic form with record sales and profits Tuesday after the close, rose 2.09%, its title reaching its all-time high at 324.34 dollars.

After the close, Facebook, Microsoft and Tesla released their quarterly health bulletin.

Just over a quarter of the S&P 500 companies reported their quarterly results. According to Factset, companies in the broader Wall Street index are expected to post a 1.53% drop in earnings per share on average in the fourth quarter.

Among the indicators, promises of home sales in the United States fell in December, while analysts expected an increase, according to data from the National Association of Realtors (NAR) released Wednesday.

On the bond market, the 10-year rate of American debt was down around 9:25 p.m. GMT, at 1.584%, against 1.656% the day before at the close.

© 2020 AFP