Shares of technology companies rose amid optimism about the Federal Reserve's policy statement Wednesday.
"I still expect they're going to hike 25 basis points tomorrow," said Brent Schutte, chief investment officer at money manager Northwestern Mutual Wealth Management. "They'll maybe float a trial balloon about potentially pausing ..."
The central bank could acknowledge that the crisis of confidence in the banking sector is a sign that financial conditions are tightening, said Mr. Schutte. The technology sector would benefit from a drop in Treasury yields that could follow any statement of intent to pause on rate hikes, but strategists say it could also suffer if the rate hikes already in place bring on a recession. "During periods like this, loans become much more difficult to secure, and that obviously helps weaken demand ... and wring out inflation," said Quincy Krosby, chief global strategist at brokerage LPL Financial.
"That's exactly what the Fed has wanted ... the question in the market is how slow does the economy go?"
Google is opening public access to the conversational computer program Bard, its answer to the viral chatbot ChatGPT.
Write to Rob Curran at rob.curran@dowjones.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
03-21-23 1735ET
