New York (AFP) - Wall Street stocks finished modestly higher Wednesday as the Federal Reserve kept interest rates unchanged while markets cautiously greeted news of weekend US-China trade talks.

The Fed, as expected, announced another pause in rate cuts amid questions over the effects of President Donald Trump’s tariff plans.

Stocks meandered during a press conference with Fed Chair Jerome Powell in which the central bank chief reiterated his independence from the White House and pointed to a “great deal of uncertainty” about tariffs and the economy.

The broad-based S&P 500 finished up 0.4 percent.

Adam Sarhan of 50 Park Investments said markets were still looking for the next “bullish catalyst” after the Fed event as investors await trade deals involving the United States and major trading partners.

“Today the market just yawned at the Fed,” Sarhan said. “Nothing really changed.”

Investors gave a positive, if muted, response to news of US-China trade talks.

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer will attend the talks in Switzerland on behalf of the United States, their offices said.

Vice Premier He Lifeng will attend on Beijing’s behalf, China’s foreign ministry announced.

The commerce ministry in Beijing vowed the country would “defend justice” and stand by its principles during the talks.

“No one truly knows where the US-China trade drama is headed,” said Fawad Razaqzada, analyst at Forex.com and City Index.

“What’s certain is that equity traders have priced in some sort of deal – however ambiguous,” he added.

Among individual companies, Alphabet sank 7.5 percent after Apple executive Eddy Cue told a US court that the Google search engine’s traffic fell on Apple products last month, a sign it is losing out to AI alternatives such as ChatGPT or Perplexity.

Disney surged 10.7 percent after reporting a big jump in quarterly revenues following strong growth in its subscriber count for its Disney+ streaming service.

The entertainment giant also announced plans for a new theme park in the United Arab Emirates.

In Europe, Danish drugmaker Novo Nordisk, behind the blockbuster weight-loss treatments Ozempic and Wegovy, rose 1.3 percent after posting higher quarterly profit and sales.

But the company cut its annual sales forecast, citing a decline in US market share.

Shares in German automaker BMW rose 1.7 percent after it said it expected to largely ride out the impact of US tariffs over the coming year.

In a statement, BMW said it expected “some of the tariff increases to be temporary, with reductions from July 2025.”

- Key figures at around 2030 GMT -

New York - Dow: UP 0.7 percent at 41,113.97 (close)

New York - S&P 500: UP 0.4 percent at 5,631.28 (close)

New York - Nasdaq: UP 0.3 percent at 17,738.16 (close)

London - FTSE 100: DOWN 0.4 percent at 8,559.33 (close)

Paris - CAC 40: DOWN 0.9 percent at 7,626.84 (close)

Frankfurt - DAX: DOWN 0.6 percent at 23,115.96 (close)

Tokyo - Nikkei 225: DOWN 0.1 percent at 36,779.66 (close)

Hong Kong - Hang Seng Index: UP 0.1 percent at 22,691.88 (close)

Shanghai - Composite: UP 0.8 percent at 3,342.67 (close)

Euro/dollar: DOWN at $1.1301 from $1.1370 on Tuesday

Pound/dollar: DOWN at $1.3286 from $1.3369

Dollar/yen: UP at 143.89 yen from 142.45 yen

Euro/pound: UP at 85.05 pence from 85.04 pence

Brent North Sea Crude: DOWN 1.7 percent at $61.12 per barrel

West Texas Intermediate: DOWN 1.7 percent at $58.07 per barrel

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