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 Chosen of the strongest moves were again in the oil territory where crude prices swung with hopes that Israel s fighting with Iran could cool President Donald Trump reported on Wednesday that Iran has reached out to him and that it s not too late for Iran to give up its nuclear undertaking 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 stated 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 vital will be what the Fed says about the future Officers will release projections for where they see the 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 just now 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 financial system 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 possible for Trump s tariffs to both hurt the financial system 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 commercial sector came in mixed on Wednesday One explained fewer workers applied for unemployment benefits last week which could be an indication of fewer layoffs But a second record disclosed 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 particular 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 vitality sources Enphase Power climbed to trim its loss for the week to Nucor rose after the steelmaker based in Charlotte North Carolina disclosed it expects to analysis increase in profit for all three of its operating groups in the second quarter It declared it benefited from higher selling prices at its sheet and plate mills among other things In the bond realm 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