STORY: U.S. stocks ended mixed on Wednesday, with the Dow gaining more than half a percent, the S&P 500 dipping a tenth of a percent and the Nasdaq shedding a third of a percent.The U.S. Federal Reserve cut interest rates by an expected 25 basis points and projected two more quarter-percentage-point cuts this year.While Fed Chair Jerome Powell discussed the mounting risks to employment, he said inflation concerns still must be managed.Lower rates should be a catalyst to keep the bull market rally going, says Eric Diton, president and managing director of The Wealth Alliance.”Since 1994, there have been eight times that the Fed has cut rates within two weeks of an S&P high, one-year high. It's happened eight times. All eight times, the market was higher one year out, median 14.5%. It's just pointing to the momentum that you get in the markets when you have a dovish Fed. And that is clearly what we have now.”Financial stocks helped boost the Dow, with American Express gaining more than two-and-a-half percent and Goldman Sachs adding more than 1%.Among other movers, shares of Lyft popped more than 13% on the news that Alphabet's Waymo would launch autonomous cab rides in Nashville next year in collaboration with the ride-hailing firm. Shares of rival Uber fell 5%.:: WorkdayAnd shares of Workday jumped more than 7% on the news that activist investor Elliott Management took a more than $2 billion stake in the human resources software provider.
