Wall Street edges higher ahead of Federal Reserve rate decision, Broadcom jumps 4.4%, Applied Materials surges 8.6%

Wall Street edged higher ahead of the Federal Reserve's interest rate decision, with the S&P 500 up 0.2%, Dow up 0.5%, and Nasdaq up 0.2%. The Fed is broadly expected to keep its benchmark rate steady in the 3.50%-3.75% range, in what would be the first policy decision under Chair Kevin Warsh. Semiconductor stocks rallied sharply, with Broadcom gaining 4.4% and Applied Materials surging 8.6%, while software names like Adobe, Salesforce, and Atlassian declined between 1.2% and 2.3%.