While you were sleeping: UPDATED Stocks stall as Fed sees slowdown as 'transitory'

The US dollar strengthened while Wall Street pared losses after Federal Reserve policy makers said they expected the recent slowdown in economic growth to be "transitory."

"The [Federal Open Market] Committee views the slowing in growth during the first quarter as likely to be transitory and continues to expect that, with gradual adjustments in the stance of monetary policy," it said after its two-day meeting. 

"Economic activity will expand at a moderate pace, labour market conditions will strengthen somewhat further, and inflation will stabilise around 2 percent over the medium term. Near-term risks to the economic outlook appear roughly balanced."

The FOMC kept its target interest rate steady in a unanimous decison. It has previously signalled plans for two more rate hikes this year.

"They went out of their way to emphasise this is not something they see persisting and pretty much says to me that their two rate hikes are still on the table for the balance of the year," Heidi Learner, chief economist at Savills Studley, told Reuters.

Jobs growth better than expected
Meanwhile, the latest US jobs data were better than anticipated. An ADP Research Institute showed private employers added 177,000 jobs in April, above economists' expectations and up from a downwardly revised 255,000 jobs in March.

"Despite a dip in job creation, the growth is more than strong enough to accommodate the growing population as the labour market nears full employment," Ahu Yildirmaz, co-head of the ADP Research Institute, said, Bloomberg reported.

"Looking across company sizes, midsized businesses showed persistent growth for the past six months."

Meanwhile, stocks stalled on Wall Street. At the close of trading in New York, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 8.01 points, or 0.04%, to 20,957.90. The Nasdaq Composite Index dropped 0.4% to 6072.55, ending a run of record highs, and the Standard & Poor's 500 Index slid 0.13% to 2388.13.

In the Dow, slides in shares of Walt Disney and those of DuPont, down 2.5% and 1.1% respectively, offset gains in shares of Chevron and those of Mobil Exxon, recently up 1.4% and 1.0% respectively.

Apple shares weaken
Shares of Apple traded 0.3% weaker at $US147.41. Earlier, Apple fell as low as $US144.27 after its latest quarterly results disappointed with a surprise decline in iPhone sales.

"There is a general softening in phone demand to contend with as well as expectations of a big upgrade, all of which softens the blow of this quarter's miss," James McQuivey, a Forrester Research analyst, told Reuters.

"If we see Apple downplaying expectations before the next upgrade cycle, it might mean that the company isn't confident it will beat those expectations."

Shares of Bunge slumped 10% after the US agricultural trader posted disappointing quarterly earnings and downgraded its full-year forecast for its agribusiness unit as well as its food and ingredients unit. 

"The slow pace of farmer selling in South America compressed margins in Agribusiness and led to a lower than expected first quarter," Soren Schroder, Bunge's chief executive officer, said in a statement.

"Despite this difficult start, we continue to expect 2017 to be a year of solid year-over-year earnings growth, although below our prior expectations."

Mondelez improves
Shares of Mondelez International rose 2.8% after the company said it continued to improve profitability through cost-cutting, while Delphi Automotive shares rose 9.3% after the company unveiled a plan to spin off its powertrain systems unit.

The yield on the benchmark 10-year US Treasury note rose to 2.309% from 2.296% on Tuesday. The US rose 0.4% against a basket of 16 other currencies.

In Europe, the Stoxx 600 Index ended the day with little change from the previous close.

Germany's DAX Index rose 0.2%, France's CAC40 Index slipped 0.1% and the UK's FTSE 100 Index declined 0.2%.

(BusinessDesk)