Wall Street closes lower after Fed holds rates steady

The Dow fell 76.85 points, or 0.22%, to 34,440.88, the S&P 500 lost 41.75 points, or 0.94%, to 4,402.2 and the Nasdaq Composite dropped 209.06 points, or 1.53%, to 13,469.13.

NEW YORK: US stocks slumped on Wednesday after the US Federal Reserve held key interest rates unchanged as widely expected, and revised economic projections higher with warnings that the battle against inflation was far from over.

All three major US stock indexes retreated in the wake of announcement, with interest rate sensitive megacap stocks Microsoft Corp, Apple Inc and Nvidia Corp pulling the Nasdaq down most.