NEW YORK (AP) - An optimistic statement from the Federal Reserve sent the dollar up and gold prices down Wednesday as traders prepared for rising interest rates.
Major U.S. stock indexes ended with a slight loss after the Fed confirmed that it was shutting down a bond-buying program because the economy no longer needs as much help.
At the end of a two-day meeting, the Fed said that it had ended its $4 trillion bond-buying program, known as quantitative easing, or QE for short, as a result of "underlying strength in the broader economy."
The Standard & Poor's 500 index fell 2.75 points, or 0.1 percent, to 1,982.30. The Dow Jones industrial average fell 31.44 points, or 0.2 percent, to 16,974.31. The Nasdaq composite fell 15.07 points, or 0.3 percent, to 4,549.23.