Stocks closed mixed yesterday after the Fed left rates unchanged, as expected.

The markets were mostly lower in the morning prior to the FOMC announcement, but started firming up as the announcement got closer. Afterwards, stocks traded in positive territory as everyone awaited Fed Chair, Jerome Powell's press conference. Stocks then soared during his talk, as there appeared to be relief that the Fed had not adopted a hawkish stance given the stubbornness of inflation.

In fact, Mr. Powell said, in spite of a "lack of progress" in bringing inflation down lately, he said "I think it's unlikely that the next policy rate move will be a hike."

At the same time, the Fed seems fine with keeping rates where they are for now. And the consensus from Fed watchers is the first rate cut isn't likely until September or even November.

While the Fed is keeping rates steady for now, they did announce they would be shrinking their balance sheet at a slower pace starting in June.

Some see the reduction in the amount of Treasuries they let mature without being reinvested as being a form of monetary easing (or at least, less monetary tightening than had been expected). The Fed is still intent on reducing the amount of debt it's holding, but will be proceeding at a slower pace moving forward.

Interestingly, almost as soon at Mr. Powell stopped talking, stocks began coming off their intraday highs, with some indexes turning negative by the close.

In other news, Qualcomm, after the close, reported earnings and posted a positive EPS surprise of 6.09%, and a positive sales surprise of 0.74%. That translated to a quarterly EPS growth rate of 13.5% vs. this time last year, and a sales growth of 1.19%. They were up 3.5% in after-hours trade.

DoorDash also reported after the close and posted a positive EPS surprise of 14.29%, and a positive sales surprise of 2.37%. They narrowed their loss to just -6 cents per share vs. -41 cents last year at this time, while sales grew by 23%. Shares were down by -15% in after-hours trade.

Carvana reported after the bell as well and posted a positive EPS surprise of 46.05%, and a positive sales surprise of 12.73%. They narrowed their loss to -41 cents a share from last year's -$1.51, while increasing sales by 17.2%. The stock soared by more than 30% in after-hours trade.

Today we'll hear from another 484 companies with names like ConocoPhilllips, Novo Nordisk, and Cigna going before the open, and Apple, Booking Holdings, and Amgen reporting after the close.

It was also a busy day of economic reports as well yesterday.
MBA Mortgage Applications fell -2.3% w/w with purchases down by -1.7%, and refi?s down by -3.3%.

The Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey report (JOLTS), showed 8.488 million job openings vs. last month's 8.813M and the consensus for 8.7M.

And the ADP Employment Report showed 192,000 private payroll jobs were created last month vs. the consensus for 175,000.

But the jobs report everybody is really waiting for is Friday's always important Employment Situation report. The consensus is calling for 243,000 jobs in total being created, with 190,000 coming from the private sector, and 53,000 coming from the public.

In the meantime, today we'll get the Challenger Job-Cut Report, Weekly Jobless Claims, the International Trade in Goods and Services report, and Factory Orders.

And we'll see if the market can resume its winning ways that we briefly saw after yesterday's FOMC announcement.

See you tomorrow,