Wall Street rises as oil prices ease and the countdown ticks to the Fed’s decision on interest rates

NEW YORK AP U S stocks are drifting higher on Wednesday as Wall Street waits to hear where the Federal Reserve may be taking interest rates The S P was up in midday trading The Dow Jones Industrial Average was up points or as of a m Eastern time and the Nasdaq composite was higher Certain of the strongest moves were again in the oil arena where crude prices swung with hopes that Israel s fighting with Iran could cool President Donald Trump announced on Wednesday that Iran has reached out to him and that it s not too late for Iran to give up its nuclear project though he also declined to say whether the U S military would strike the country I may do it I may not do it he reported I mean nobody knows what I m going to do After topping during the morning the price for a barrel of benchmark U S oil dropped to down from the day before Brent crude the international standard fell to per barrel Oil prices have been yo-yoing for days because of rising and ebbing fears that the conflict could disrupt the global flow of crude Not only is Iran a major producer of oil it also sits on the narrow Strait of Hormuz through which much of the world s crude passes The headline event for the day will likely arrive at p m in Washington when the Federal Reserve is set to announce its latest move on interest rates The nearly unanimous expectation is that it will hold rates steady as it s been doing for all of this year after cutting through the end of More essential will be what the Fed says about the future Representatives will release projections for where they see the financial market inflation and interest rates heading in upcoming years The widespread expectation on Wall Street is that the Fed will cut its main interest rate at least two times by the end of though that has been weakening a bit not long ago as oil prices have climbed and put upward pressure on inflation A cut in rates could make mortgages credit-card payments and other loans cheaper for U S households and businesses which in turn could give the overall market a boost But lower rates can also fan inflation higher Besides the threat of higher oil prices because of the fighting between Israel and Iran the Fed has been concerned about the expected for Trump s tariffs to both hurt the commercial sector and to drive inflation higher That s been the main reason it s been on hold with interest rates this year So far inflation has remained relatively tame and it s near the Fed s target of But economists have been saying it may take months more to feel the full effects of tariffs A pair of reports on the U S financial sector came in mixed on Wednesday One mentioned fewer workers applied for unemployment benefits last week which could be an indication of fewer layoffs But a second assessment stated that homebuilders broke ground on fewer homes last month than economists expected That could be a sign that higher mortgage rates are chilling the industry On Wall Street various alternative-energy stocks rose to recover a portion of their sharp losses from the day before when worries flared about Congress possibly phasing out tax credits for solar and green capacity sources Enphase Capacity climbed to trim its loss for the week to Nucor rose after the steelmaker based in Charlotte North Carolina noted it expects to record upsurge in profit for all three of its operating groups in the second quarter It stated it benefited from higher selling prices at its sheet and plate mills among other things In the bond domain Treasury yields eased lower ahead of the Fed s announcement The yield on the -year Treasury fell to from late Tuesday The two-year Treasury yield which more closely tracks expectations for what the Fed will do with its overnight interest rate dropped to from In stock markets abroad indexes were mixed across Europe and Asia Tokyo s Nikkei rose and Hong Kong s Hang Seng fell for two of the bigger moves