NEW YORK – A listless day on Wall Street ended Wednesday with mixed signs, as market nervousness continues to fade after last week’s shake by the Federal Reserve.

The S&P 500 slipped 4.6 points, or 0.1%, to 4,241.84 after meandering between modest gains and losses earlier. That’s 0.3% below its record a week and a half ago.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 71.34, or 0.2%, to 33,874.24, as the Nasdaq composite added to its record set the previous day. It rose 18.46, or 0.1%, to 14,271.73.

The majority of S&P 500 stocks fell, but the gains of financial companies and others that do best when the economy is healthy kept the losses low.

Markets have notably calmed down since the Federal Reserve surprised investors last week by saying it could start raising short-term interest rates by the end of 2023, earlier than expected.

The very low rates the Fed designed to get the economy through the pandemic made investing easy for over a year. They have supported prices in all markets, and any change would be a big deal. This is why the Fed’s announcement triggered an immediate drop in stocks and higher Treasury yields.

But since then investors have focused more on the fact that it could still be years before the first rate hike hits, especially as Fed officials continue to say they consider high inflation sweeping the economy as a temporary problem.

Before the Fed hikes rates for the first time since 2018, it will likely need to check off several things first, investment giant Capital Group said in a recent report.

First, the Fed will announce that it will cut its bond purchases to keep long-term interest rates low. Then it will actually start to decrease, before ending and then signaling that a rate hike is coming.

“This timeline will take time, and Fed officials have made it clear they will remain patient,” Capital Group, which manages American Funds, said in its mid-year outlook.

Meanwhile, the economy continues to accelerate and corporate profits are skyrocketing.

A measure of nervousness among stock investors in the market, the volatility index, has fallen by about 2%. Earlier today, it approached its lowest level since the start of the pandemic liquidation in February 2020.

Of course, if the Fed is wrong and the rise in inflation lasts longer, then the central bank will have to be more aggressive in raising rates.

The latest inflation data will come on Friday with the release of the Federal Reserve’s preferred gauge of consumer spending. It will cover the month of May, which, according to the Consumer Price Index, has already recorded 5% year-on-year inflation.

Bond yields have held relatively steady after a mixed set of economic data. The 10-year Treasury yield climbed to 1.48% from 1.47% on Tuesday night. The two-year yield held steady at 0.25%.

Preliminary readings on the economy in June from IHS Markit showed manufacturing is growing at a faster rate than economists expected, but growth in service industries has fallen short of expectations.

New home sales in May also failed to meet economists’ forecasts. This was the second consecutive monthly decline as soaring house prices slowed activity. In addition to a housing shortage in the market, inflation has also pushed up house prices due to rising costs for lumber and other building materials.

European markets were mostly down. The DAX in Germany lost 1.2% and the CAC 40 in France fell by 0.9%. The FTSE 100 in London fell 0.2%.

In Asia, Japan’s Nikkei 225 was largely unchanged while other markets were stronger. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng rose 1.8% and Seoul stocks 0.4%.