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Fed's time table a relief to stocks

Wednesday, July 30, 2014 - 02:32

Summary: Stocks cut losses on Fed statement; GDP jumps to 4.0%; Whole Foods cuts outlook- again; Yelp turns a profit; Twitter stock jumps one day after earnings report. Bobbi Rebell reports.

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Stocks cut losses to close mixed after the Fed raised its assessment of the U.S. economy- but confirmed it's in no hurry to increase interest rates. At the end of its two-day meeting, the central bank, as expected, cut its monthly asset purchases by another $10 billion to $25 billion. The yield on the 10 year treasury notes had its biggest rise since November. Earlier in the day the first read on GDP showed the US economy grew at a four percent annual rate in the second quarter. That was better than expected. But stocks have climbed a wall of apprehension this year- and could be poised to take a step back warns Kristina Hooper, of Allianz Global Investors SOUNDBITE: KRISTINA HOOPER, US. INVESTMENT STRATEGIST, ALLIANZ GI (ENGLISH) SAYING: "Look at the geopolitical crisis we've seen over the past few weeks, really haven't had much of an impact, and yet the GDP number today had a very significant impact. So the stock market is clearly looking through a different colored lens because of our monetary policy accommodation. So any sense that that accommodation could go away even a little bit sooner, could be very significant. It could be the one thing that actually shakes the confidence of investors." The ADP private payrolls report showed U.S. companies hired 218,000 workers in July- a solid pace but a bit short of forecasts. After the bell earnings included Whole Foods- missing sales forecasts- and cutting its 2014 outlook for the fourth time. And Yelp- turning profitable for the first time as a public company. Twitter stock had its biggest ever one-day advance- after reporting monthly active users rose 24 percent last quarter. Insurance stocks fell after Humana, WellPoint, and Aflac all reported lower earnings. Sprint reporting higher than expected revenue, but it also said its customer defection rate- known as churn- is growing. Bank of America was ordered to pay $1.27 billion in damages. A federal jury found the second-largest U.S. bank liable for fraud over defective mortgages sold by its countrywide unit. Argntina's debt talks went down to the wire. No deal was in place by the time the U.S. financial markets closed. They have until midnight to either cut a deal with holdout investors suing it- or win a reprieve from a U.S. court. European shares closed lower - on weak earnings reports and concerns the conflict between Russia and Ukraine will escalate.