04:01 PM EDT, 05/01/2024 (MT Newswires) -- US benchmark equity indexes were higher ahead of Wednesday's close after the Federal Reserve left interest rates unchanged and Chair Jerome Powell said it's "unlikely" that the next monetary policy move would be a rate increase.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 0.6% at 38,043.7, while the Nasdaq Composite rose 0.4% to 15,723.5. The S&P 500 advanced 0.2% to 5,043.1. Among sectors, communication services and utilities led the gainers. Energy saw the steepest decline.

The central bank's Federal Open Market Committee held interest rates steady at 5.25% to 5.50%, its sixth straight pause and in line with Wall Street's projections.

"Inflation has eased over the past year but remains elevated," the FOMC said in a statement after its two-day meeting. "In recent months, there has been a lack of further progress toward the committee's 2% inflation objective."

Separately, Powell said in a press conference after the FOMC's meeting that "it's unlikely that the next policy rate move will be a hike." Powell said he believes that the current policy stance is restrictive enough to bring down inflation.

The US two-year yield declined 8.8 basis points to 4.96%, while the 10-year rate fell 6 basis points to 4.62%.

West Texas Intermediate crude oil slumped 3.4% to $79.14 per barrel.