Wall Street shares closed mixed Wednesday following the Fed statement and major earnings reports. Gains in shares of Apple countered declines in Coca-Cola.
The Dow Jones industrial average and S&P 500 closed slightly lower. The Nasdaq composite outperformed, helped by gains in Apple. Apple shares ended 6.5 percent higher, its best day since April 2014 after reporting better-than-expected earnings.
As expected, the Federal Reserve kept interest rates unchanged. In its statement released after the FOMC decision, policymakers noted the labor market has "strengthened" and that "near-term risks to the economic outlook have diminished."
The Japanese yen rose on Thursday on speculation that the Bank of Japan won't deliver radical stimulus this week, while the dollar slipped after the Fed fell short of signalling a near-term rate rise.
USD/JPY fell more than half a percentage point to 104.46, while EUR/JPY was around 0.2 percent lower to 116.30 ahead of the BOJ's two-day policy meeting that begins on Thursday.
