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Fed leaves policy rate unchanged as expected

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Statement indicates next move will be a cut

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Fed Chair Powell due to speak shortly

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Job openings hit three-year low

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Indexes: Dow up 0.28%, S&P down 0.25%, Nasdaq down 0.29%

(Updates to 14:21 EDT)

By Stephen Culp

NEW YORK, May 1 (Reuters) - Wall Street stocks wavered

before trending higher on Wednesday as the U.S. Federal Reserve

left its key interest rate unchanged, as expected, but indicated

that the next move on rates will probably be a cut.

The three major U.S. stock indexes were last off session

lows.

The Federal Open Markets Committee (FOMC) concluded its

two-day monetary policy meeting by letting the Fed funds target

rate stand at 5.25%-5.50%.

"They left rates unchanged and the note mentions a lack of

further progress on inflation," said Peter Cardillo, chief

market economist at Spartan Capital Securities in New York.

"That's no surprise."

The accompanying statement left the timing of any rate cut

in doubt, and Fed officials underscored their concern that the

first months of 2024 have done little to build the confidence

they seek in falling inflation.

Fed Chair Jerome Powell is expected to participate in a Q&A

session shortly, which will be parsed by investors for clues on

how long the central bank expects to keep its restrictive policy

in place, and the timing and likelihood of any rate cuts this

year.

"(Powell) is not doing to sound dovish," Cardillo added.

He's going to be repeating the same thing, that the Fed is data

dependent. That's not going to change."

At 2:21 p.m. ET, the Dow Jones Industrial Average

rose 158.35 points, or 0.42%, to 37,974.27. The S&P 500

lost 4.54 points, or 0.09%, to 5,031.15 and the Nasdaq Composite

dropped 3.32 points, or 0.02%, to 15,654.51.