Market Wrap-Up

The Federal Reserve's Federal Open Market Committee cut the federal-funds rate by a quarter point to 2%. Investors were expecting such a move. However, they ended the day Monday trying to decipher the committee's press release. "Recent information indicates that economic activity remains weak. Financial markets remain under considerable stress, and tight credit conditions and the deepening housing contraction are likely to weigh on economic growth over the next few quarters," explained the committee. "Although readings on core inflation have improved somewhat, energy and other commodity prices have increased, and some indicators of inflation expectations have risen in recent months. The Committee expects inflation to moderate in coming quarters... Still, uncertainty about the inflation outlook remains high."

Stocks were up more than 100 points leading up to the announcement and they did manage to jump another 50 points shortly after it, too. However, some of that speculative trading settled down as the session ended and investors contemplated the Fed's comments. The Dow Jones Industrial Average lost 12 points to 12,820.

Also Wednesday, General Motors announced a first-quarter loss that, although disappointing, managed to exceed analysts' expectations. The stock jumped 10% during the trading session. The company's news followed positive results from Ford earlier in the week.

Winners

Although most of the attention during Wednesday's trading session was focused on Wall Street, the big winners were south of the U.S.'s borders. Brazil was reportedly raised to investment grade by Standard & Poor's due to the country's growing economy and the fact that it has reduced debt. That news lifted a series of emerging-market ETFs that focus on South America and Latin America.

IShares MSCI Brazil

IShares S&P Latin America 40

Losers

Home builders sank lower as investors digested poor data from earlier in the week and debated whether the Fed would stop cutting rates at its next meeting. The

SPDR S&P Homebuilders

The rate cut and a strengthening dollar also caused investors to sell oil. The per-barrel price for crude dropped below $115. MacroShares Oil Down dropped 7.5%.

Thursday's Notebook

Look for

Exxon Mobil

Earnings

Thursday

: Aon, Applied Micro Circuits, Automatic Data Processing, Bankrate, Bebe, Burger King, Callaway Golf, Cardinal Health, CenturyTel, Chesapeake Energy, Chiquita, Cigna, Clorox, Coinstar, Comcast, Dominion Resources, Exxon, Gaylord Entertainment, Green Mountain Coffee Roasters, MetLife, Monster, Nicor, Noble Energy, Oshkosh, Revlon, Tyco Electronics, Xcel Energy

Economic Data

Thursday

: Initial Jobless Claims (8:30 a.m.), Personal Income (8:30 a.m.), Personal Spending (8:30 a.m.), ISM Manufacturing Index (10 a.m.), Construction Spending (10 a.m.), Business Barometer (10 a.m.)

Quick Take

A look at how the industry's most popular ETFs did on Wednesday.