US Stock Market Close: US Fed Warns of Inflation Risks, Three Major Indices Jump Initially and Then Pull Back

As the US Fed once again warned about the risk of inflation triggered by tariffs, and with US stock markets set to close during a critical juncture of major geopolitical events, the three major US stock indices collectively jumped initially and then pulled back overnight, closing nearly flat.

On Tuesday, the S&P 500 index edged down 0.03% to close at 5,980.87; the Nasdaq Composite Index rose 0.13% to close at 19,546.27; and the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 0.1% to close at 42,171.66.

(Daily chart of the S&P 500 index, source: TradingView)

After maintaining the policy interest rate unchanged for the fourth consecutive time, Fed Chairman Powell stated at a press conference thatthe price increases triggered by tariffs will become more pronounced in the coming months,and the Fed needs to be confident that inflation is declining before it can begin to cut interest rates.

Powell said that there is a high degree of uncertainty regarding the scale, duration, and transmission cycle of the tariff impacts, which is why it is most appropriate for the Fed to maintain its policy stance unchanged at this stage while continuing to observe developments.

Compared to the Fed's largely expected remarks,investors are more concerned about the Middle East issue, especially given that the US stock market will be closed on Thursday.

According to CCTV News reports, while the US military continues to deploy military aircraft and aircraft carrier battle groups to the Middle East, US President Trump told his senior aides on the evening of June 17 that he had approved an attack plan against Iran but would not issue the final order for the time being to observe whether Iran would abandon its nuclear program.

Informed sources also revealed that Iran's heavily fortified Fordow nuclear facility could become a US target. Military experts generally believe that only the most powerful massive bunker-buster bombs can destroy it.

Performance of Popular Stocks

On Wednesday, US tech giants generally performed weakly, with Apple rising 0.48%, Microsoft rising 0.46%, Amazon falling 1.07%, NVIDIA rising 0.94%, Alphabet-A falling 1.49%, Tesla rising 1.8%, Meta falling 0.21%, and Advanced Micro Devices falling 0.24%.

Against the backdrop of the US Senate's approval of the stablecoin bill, Circle's stock price rose further by 33.82% to $199.59 on Wednesday, more than six times its IPO price. Meanwhile, Visa and Mastercard both fell nearly 5%.

(Daily chart of Circle, source: TradingView)

Chinese concept stocks also weakened due to dragged-down market sentiment, with the Nasdaq Golden Dragon China Index closing down 0.82%.

By the close of trading, Alibaba fell by 1.34%, JD.com by 2.02%, Baidu by 1.71%, Pinduoduo by 0.27%, Bilibili by 1.7%, NIO by 0.58%, NetEase by 0.73%, and Futu Holdings rose by 0.39%.

The "Traditional Chinese Medicine + Brain-Computer Interface" concept stock, BrainStorm Cell Therapeutics, which has attracted attention for several consecutive days, fell by 18.78% on Wednesday, with an intraday decline of up to 30% at one point.

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