By STAN CHOE, AP Business Writer<\/p>\n
NEW YORK (AP) \u2014 U.S. stocks are drifting Wednesday as the countdown ticks toward this afternoon\u2019s announcement from the Federal Reserve<\/a> on what it will do with interest rates<\/a>.<\/p>\n The S&P 500 rose 0.2% and pulled within 1% of its all-time high<\/a>, which was set earlier this month. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 31 points, or 0.1%, as of 9:35 a.m. Eastern time, and the Nasdaq composite was 0.3% higher.<\/p>\n The day\u2019s highlight will likely be what the Federal Reserve says, if anything, about where interest rates are heading. The Fed raised its main interest rate<\/a> last month for the first time in three years in hopes of slowing the high inflation<\/a> that\u2019s squeezing the economy and discouraging Americans<\/a> broadly.<\/p>\n The widespread expectation on Wall Street is that the Fed will leave the federal funds rate alone at this meeting, and the question is whether it will give hints about what may happen at later meetings. Fed Chairman Kevin Warsh, though, has been adamant since taking over the Fed about wanting it to give fewer indications about its future moves.<\/p>\n Wall Street cares so much about interest rates because they are one of the main levers that set prices for stocks. The other big variable is how much profit companies are making, and more companies joined the list Wednesday of those beating analysts\u2019 expectations for profits during the summer.<\/p>\n GE Healthcare Technologies jumped 8% after delivering both profit and revenue for the summer that surpassed analysts\u2019 expectations. It also raised its forecasts for revenue growth and other financial measures for the full year.<\/p>\n Etsy climbed 6.6% after its profit for the latest quarter blew past analysts\u2019 forecasts. CEO Kruti Patel Goyal said the online marketplace saw growth in active buyers from prior-year levels for the first time in two years, while its active seller base grew at its fastest rate in two years.<\/p>\n Stocks in the artificial-intelligence<\/a> industry were also relatively solid. They\u2019ve stabilized this week following big swings<\/a> on worries that high borrowing costs<\/a> caused by high interest rates will undercut the boom in AI data centers largely built with borrowed money.<\/p>\n AI stocks got an additional boost after a major player in the industry, South Korea\u2019s SK Hynix, soared 10.9% in Seoul following its latest profit report. The seller of memory chips said it\u2019s in the midst of a virtuous cycle of rising AI usage, and it expects demand to continue to outpace supply through 2030.<\/p>\n On Wall Street, Micron Technology jumped 5.2% and was the strongest force lifting the S&P 500. It also sells computer memory.<\/p>\n They helped offset a 3.2% drop for Robinhood Markets, which reported weaker profit and revenue for the latest quarter than analysts expected.<\/p>\n Boston Scientific fell 11.1% even though the seller of medical devices reported a milder drop in profit for the latest quarter than analysts expected. It gave a forecast for profit in the current quarter that fell short of analysts\u2019 expectations.<\/p>\n In the bond market, Treasury yields held relatively steady ahead of the Fed\u2019s announcement. The yield on the 10-year Treasury remained at 4.99%, where it was late Tuesday.<\/p>\n It\u2019s still near the high end of its range since it started shooting upward from 3.97% before the war with Iran sent oil prices and worries about inflation much higher. But it\u2019s pulled back after topping 5.30% earlier this month and touching its highest level since 2002.<\/p>\n