*

Wall Street dips as Powell says no decision made on Sept

rate

cut

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Fed keeps rates steady, notes moderating economic growth

*

Trump announces 50% tariffs on Brazil, 25% tariff for

India

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Copper falls with Trump imposing 50% tariffs

By Sinéad Carew and Samuel Indyk

NEW YORK/ LONDON, July 30 (Reuters) - MSCI's global

equities gauge stumbled on Wednesday while the U.S. dollar

extended gains after Federal Reserve chair Powell dampened

investor hopes for an interest rate cut in September, saying

that it was too soon to make a decision and copper prices

tumbled on hefty U.S. tariff announcements.

The Fed left interest rates unchanged at the end of its two-day

policy meeting and noted moderating economic growth and the

central bank gave little indication of when borrowing costs

might be lowered. The decision to hold rates steady drew

dissents from two of the U.S. central bank's governors, both

appointees of U.S. President Donald Trump who has been

constantly berating Powell for the lack of rate cuts.

The equity market reaction to the Fed's statement was muted. But

stocks lost ground sharply as Powell said during a press

conference that the Fed would decide on cut rates after it

examines economic information in the run-up to its next

gathering, in September.

"Markets wanted to hear that rate cuts were teed up for

September, but received no indication of such from Powell. The

President had usurped the Fed's forward guidance a little with

his statements on where short term interest rates should be.

Powell simply reminded markets that the FOMC sets the policy

rate, not Congress and not the President, so markets needed to

reprice the level of rates for the next few months," said Jamie

Cox, managing partner at Harris Financial Group.

On Wall Street the Dow Jones Industrial

Average fell 171.71 points, or 0.38%, to 44,461.28, the

S&P 500 fell 7.96 points, or 0.12%, to 6,362.90 and the

Nasdaq Composite rose 31.38 points, or 0.15%, to

21,129.67.

MSCI's gauge of stocks across the globe

fell 2.65 points, or 0.28%, to 933.15.

"As we expected, September is in play, but Powell walked back

the probability of a September cut," said Tony Welch, chief

investment officer at SignatureFD, adding that the Fed has two

more inflation and employment reports to review before the

meeting. "If inflation data moderates and growth softens, then

we would expect a cut. If conditions match today - slower but

positive growth and lingering inflation, then a rate cut is

unlikely."

In currencies, the dollar advanced further as Powell spoke. The

dollar index, which measures the greenback against a

basket of currencies including the yen and the euro,

rose 1.01% to 99.89.

The euro down 1.13% at $1.1416 while sterling

weakened 0.78% to $1.3244 and the Canadian dollar

weakened 0.52% versus the greenback to C$1.38 per dollar.

Against the Japanese yen, the dollar strengthened 0.67%

to 149.43 and against the Swiss franc, the U.S. currency

strengthened 0.98% to 0.814.

In the government bond market, U.S. Treasury yields added to

gains due to Powell's uncertainty about a cut at the Fed's next

meeting in September.

The yield on benchmark U.S. 10-year notes rose 3.8

basis points to 4.366%, from 4.328% late on Tuesday while the

30-year bond yield rose 2.7 basis points to

4.8949%. The 2-year note yield, which typically moves

in step with interest rate expectations for the Federal Reserve,

rose 5.9 basis points to 3.935%.

Oil prices ended their session up more than 1% as investors

awaited developments on Trump's tighter deadline for Russia to

end the war in Ukraine and his tariff threats to countries that

trade its oil.

U.S. crude futures settled up 1.14%, or 79 cents at $70 a

barrel and Brent closed at $73.24 per barrel, up 1.01%

or 73 cents on the day.

Meanwhile on the trade front, Trump had a busy day, signing an

order for 50% tariffs on certain copper products as of August 1,

causing U.S. Comex copper futures HGc2 to plunge 19.5%. This

quickly unwound a premium over the London global benchmark that

had grown in recent weeks as traders had assumed U.S. copper

mines would see a financial benefit from the tariff.

He also signed an order for tariffs amounting to 50% for U.S.

imports from Brazil. Earlier, he had announced a 25% tariff on

U.S. imports from India starting also on August 1. This was

after talks between the U.S. and China concluded on Tuesday

without any major breakthroughs.

Elsewhere in commodities, gold prices added to losses after the

Fed's rate decision and Powell's comments. The precious metal

was already lower after the solid U.S. economic data.

Spot gold fell 1.58% to $3,273.59 an ounce.

Releases earlier in the day showed U.S. economic growth

rebounded more than expected in the second quarter, but that

grossly overstated the economy's health as declining imports

accounted for the bulk of the improvement and domestic demand

rose at its slowest pace in 2-1/2 years.

And on the labor side, U.S. private payrolls increased more than

expected in July, according to the ADP National Employment

Report. Private payrolls rose by 104,000 jobs last month after a

revised 23,000 decline in June. Economists polled by Reuters had

forecast private employment increasing 75,000 following a

previously reported drop of 33,000 in June.