<body><p>STORY: Wall Street ended sharply lower on Wednesday, with the Dow tumbling more than two percent, the S&P 500 shedding one-and-a-half percent and the Nasdaq falling one-and-three-quarters percent.</p><p>:: Archive</p><p>The Fed's widely expected decision to leave interest rates unchanged drew dissents from three of the 12 members of the central bank's policy-setting committee, who would have "preferred" a quarter-percentage-point hike at Wednesday's meeting.</p><p>Eric Diton is president and managing director of The Wealth Alliance.</p><p>"That's telling you the Fed here is not in agreement. Three dissenters is a lot. And it's clear that we are getting closer and closer to a rate hike. And the markets are handicapping that. So, I think going forward I would expect a rate hike probably in September, certainly by December. I think that’s where we are heading.”</p><p>Meanwhile, investors continued to worry about Big Tech companies funneling billions of dollars into AI at the expense of free cash flow.</p><p>Case in point: shares of Meta fell more than 9% in extended trading after the social media company hiked its forecast for 2026 capital expenditure.</p><p>But shares of another Magnificent 7 tech giant climbed in extending trading. Microsoft rose about 2% after topping Wall Street estimates for quarterly cloud revenue growth, a sign its massive spending on AI infrastructure was paying off.</p><p>:: Microsoft</p><p>:: Archive</p><p>AI-related chipmakers added to recent losses after a sixfold jump in SK Hynix's quarterly profit fell short of lofty investor expectations. </p></body>
