Stocks Continue To See Moderate Weakness In Mid-Day Trading - U.S. Commentary

(RTTNews) - Stocks remain mostly negative in mid-day trading on Wednesday after moving moderately lower earlier in the trading session. Selling pressure has remained relatively subdued, however, limiting the downside for the markets.

Currently, the major averages remain stuck in the red. The Dow is down 95.72 points or 0.5 percent at 17,753.36, the Nasdaq is down 11.37 points or 0.2 percent at 4,926.07 and the S&P 500 is down 7.31 points or 0.4 percent at 2,066.97.

The pullback seen earlier in the session partly reflected trepidation ahead of the Federal Reserve's monetary policy announcement

Nonetheless, traders seem somewhat reluctant to take significant positions as the decision looms, leading to choppy trading on Wall Street since then.

The Fed is not expected to announce an increase in interest rates, but traders will be paying close attention to any changes to the accompanying statement.

In light of upbeat employment data, many analysts expect the Fed to remove the word "patient" regarding when it plans to begin normalizing monetary policy.

The Fed's statement may also reinforce expectations that the central bank plans to go ahead with its first interest rate hike in June.

However, some analysts have suggested that the Fed will remain more dovish considering that many of the recent economic reports other than the jobs reports have shown signs of weakness.

The release of the Fed's statement will be accompanied by the central bank's revised economic forecasts and a subsequent press conference by Fed Chair Janet Yellen.

Among individual stocks, shares of Adobe Systems (ADBE) have come under pressure after the software developer reported better than expected first quarter results but provided disappointing guidance.

Delivery giant FedEx (FDX) has also moved to the downside after forecasting full-year earnings below analyst estimates despite reporting better than expected third quarter earnings.

On the other hand, shares of Oracle (ORCL) are moving higher after the business software giant reported third quarter earnings that matched estimates and raised its quarterly dividend.

Sector News

Despite the weakness being shown by the broader markets, most of the major sectors are showing only modest moves in mid-day trading.

Nonetheless, significant weakness remains visible among tobacco stocks, with the NYSE Tobacco Index down by 2 percent. The index hit its worst intraday level in well over a month earlier in the session.

Within the tobacco sector, Schweitzer-Mauduit (SWM) is posting a particularly steep loss after the cigarette paper producer announced its CFO and COO are leaving the company.

Retail and biotech stocks are also seeing some weakness on the day, while oil and natural gas stocks have moved to the upside.

Other Markets

In overseas trading, stock markets across the Asia-Pacific region turned in a mixed performance during trading on Wednesday. Japan's Nikkei 225 Index rose by 0.6 percent, while Australia's All Ordinaries Index edged down by 0.1 percent.

The major European markets have also turned mixed on the day. While the U.K.'s FTSE 100 Index has surged up by 1.4 percent, the French CAC 40 Index is just below the unchanged line and the German DAX Index is down by 0.5 percent.

In the bond market, treasuries are moving higher ahead of the closely watched Fed statement. As a result, the yield on the benchmark ten-year note, which moves opposite of its price, is down by 4.1 basis points at 2.017 percent.