Stocks Vulnerable as Fed Holds, Oil Rallies and META, AMZN & MSFT Disappoint

A divided Federal Reserve held rates steady in what was Jerome Powell’s final meeting as chair, while Brent crude surged 7% toward $120 a barrel and four Mag 7 companies delivered a mixed earnings bag that rattled after-hours trading. The S&P 500 was flat at 7,136.52, the Nasdaq edged up 0.6%, but the Dow fell 0.6%. After the bell, Alphabet jumped 7% on blockbuster cloud growth, but Meta slid 7% after raising capex guidance to $125–$145 billion, Microsoft’s Azure growth barely met estimates at 39%, and Amazon fell 2.6% despite record profits as capex surged to $44.2 billion. Money markets abandoned rate-cut bets and began pricing in a possible 2027 hike. ASX 200 futures are down 53 points.