Stock prices in the U.S. went up a little on Wednesday after the central bank did not change interest rates, which many people expected. However, they also said they were worried about growing risks for the U.S. economy.

The S&P 500 went up by 0.4%. Before this, it had gone down for two days, which stopped its nine-day winning period. The Dow Jones Industrial Average also went up by 284 points, or 0.7%, and the Nasdaq composite went up by 0.3%.

Stock markets went up and down a lot during the day, and the Dow Jones average even increased by 400 points for a short time. This happened because people hoped that the US and China were starting to work towards a trade agreement. Such a deal could help the world economy. The two biggest economies in the world have been putting more and more taxes on goods from each other in a trade war that is getting worse. People worry that this could lead to an economic downturn unless they allow trade to flow more easily between them.

Hopes for trade talks between the US and China went up when meetings were announced for this weekend in Switzerland. But hopes went down when President Donald Trump said he would not lower taxes on Chinese products before the talks.

The changing situation with tariffs has caused big changes in the U.S. economy, like a quick increase in imports to avoid future tariffs. Despite these changes and surveys showing people are less hopeful about the future, the Fed said the economy is still growing at a good speed right now.

Jerome Powell, who is in charge of the central bank, said they can wait before changing interest rates, even though Trump wants them to lower rates fast to help the economy.

"There is a lot we don't know," Powell said. Like others, the Federal Reserve is waiting to see what happens with Trump's trade disagreement and if his higher taxes on goods will have the effect he planned.

This is especially true because the trade war seems to be starting a new stage, Powell said. The United States is now having more trade talks with other countries.

The Fed also said it knows that tariffs are causing more risks for the economy. These risks could make the job market weaker and cause prices to go up.

"If the big planned increases in taxes on imports continue, they will likely cause prices to go up, the economy to grow more slowly, and more people to be out of work," Powell said.

This could lead to a bad situation called “stagflation,” where the economy is not growing, but prices are still high. This is a difficult problem because the government has no easy way to fix it. If they lower interest rates to help the economy and create jobs, it could make prices rise even more. But if they increase rates, it could slow down the economy too much.

At the same time, large American companies are still making more profit at the start of 2025 than experts expected.

The Walt Disney Company's shares went up by 10.8% because their profits were much better than experts thought. They also said they think profits will be higher later and got over a million new streaming customers.

However, companies are also still saying that the uncertain economy makes it harder for them to predict their future money situation.

The company Marvell Technology, which makes computer chips, saw its stock price fall by 8%. This happened because the company decided to delay its meeting for investors, which was planned for June. They moved the meeting to a later time because they are not sure about the future of the economy.

Overall, the S&P 500 index went up by 24.37 points and finished at 5,631.28. The Dow Jones Industrial Average also increased by 284.97 points to 41,113.97, and the Nasdaq composite index rose by 48.50 points, reaching 17,738.16.

After the Federal Reserve made its announcement, the interest rates on government bonds went down. The rate for 10-year bonds dropped slightly, from 4.30% to 4.27%.

Markets in Europe generally went down, but markets in Asia increased.

Indexes in Hong Kong went up by 0.1% and in Shanghai by 0.8%. This happened after China reduced interest rates and made other changes to help their economy and markets. These actions were taken because higher taxes ordered by Trump were affecting China's exports.