Dow falls slightly as U.S. stocks end mixed after Fed Chair Powell’s testimony

U.S. stocks closed mixed Wednesday, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average booking back-to-back losses after Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell’s second day of congressional testimony on monetary policy. The Dow
DJIA,
-0.18%
ended 0.2% lower, while the S&P 500
SPX,
+0.14%
rose 0.1% and the Nasdaq Composite
COMP,
+0.40%
gained 0.4%, according to preliminary data from FactSet. Powell said Wednesday during testimony before the U.S. House Financial Services Committee that no decision has been made on the size of its interest rate hike at its policy meeting later this month. In his testimony Tuesday before the U.S. Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs, Powell had opened the door to potentially accelerating the pace of rate hikes.