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The S&P 500 and Dow Jones Industrial Average eked out marginal gains to end at records on Wednesday after the Federal Reserve outlined its plan to start reducing its massive balance sheet in October. As fully expected, policy makers made no change to interest rates, but said the Fed would start to shrink its $4.5 trillion balance sheet by $10 billion a month. The S&P 500 closed 1.59 points, or less than 0.1%, higher at 2,508.24. The Nasdaq Composite index slipped 5.28 points, or less than 0.1%, to 6,456.04. The Dow Jones Industrial Average added 41.79 points, or 0.2%, to 22,412.59. Among the best performer on Wall Street were energy companies, which rose in tandem with oil prices. Marathon Oil Corp jumped 3.5% and was the best performers on the S&P 500.

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Oil climbed Wednesday, with U.S. prices topping $50 a barrel for their highest finish in about four months. Support from expectations that major oil producers will extend their output-cut deal further into next year outweighed pressure from a bigger-than-expected weekly rise in U.S. crude inventories. Tensions in the Middle East tied to President Donald Trump’s comments on Iran’s nuclear deal also supported prices. October West Texas Intermediate crude , which expired at the settlement, rose 93 cents, or 1.9%, to settle at $50.41 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. That was the highest finish since for a front-month contract since May 24, according to FactSet data. November WTI settled at $50.69, up 79 cents, or 1.6%.

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The ICE U.S. Dollar index shot to the highest level since early September after the Federal Reserve left its key interest rate unchanged, but confirmed the start of the reduction its $4.5 trillion balance sheet. The U.S. central bank said it would start the the unwind in October at a pace of $10 billion a month, in line with analyst expectations. Meanwhile, the Fed’s interest-rate projections, or dot plots, suggest another rate hike in 2017, followed by three additional raises in 2018. All totaled, the policy update offered a hawkish turn for the dollar, which turned positive against key rivals like the euro , Swiss franc , and Canadian dollar , while breaking through ¥112 against the Japanese yen . The British pound , which initially defended its gains, also gave in and flipped into negative territory against the buck

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Shares of Best Inc. , a logistics firm based in China, were up 7% in afternoon trade after the company made its debut on the New York Stock Exchange on Wednesday. The company, backed by Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. , sold 45 million American depositary shares at $10 each, on the low end of its range, to raise $450 billion. The company had initially set a price range of $13 to $15 a share and planned to offer 53.5 million new shares and 8.5 million existing shares. Citigroup, Credit Suisse, Goldman Sachs, J.P. Morgan and Deutsche Bank were the lead underwriters on the offering.

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Experts in Deloitte’s retail and distribution practice said Wednesday that they expect holiday sales, seasonally adjusted and excluding motor vehicles and gasoline, to be $1.04 trillion to $1.05 trillion between November and January. They anticipate a year-over-year holiday retail sales increase of 4% to 4.5%, and e-commerce sales will rise 18% to 21%, reaching $111 billion to $114 billion. A strong labor market and high consumer confidence are two factors responsible for the growth. An increased savings rate and the impact of an active hurricane season are risks to the forecast, Deloitte said. Global business advisory firm AlixPartners has a wider forecast, anticipating a year-over-year increase in holiday retail spending between 3.5% and 4.4%, the group said Wednesday. The SPDR S&P Retail ETF is down 6.2% for the past year while the S&P 500 index is up more than 17% for the period.

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The big 3 stock market indexes were mixed to little changed in afternoon trade Wednesday, as investors appeared to hold their ground ahead of the Federal Reserve’s monetary policy update, but market internals suggest the broader market is actually enjoying healthy gains. The number of advancing stocks is dominating decliners by a 1,777-to-1,020 score on the NYSE, and by a 1,554-to-1,079 margin on the Nasdaq exchange. Volume in advancing stocks made up 61.3% of total volume on the Big Board, but just 47.3% of the total on the Nasdaq. Meanwhile, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 2 points, or just a fraction of 0.1%, while the S&P 500 slipped less than 0.1% and the Nasdaq Composite fell 0.2%.

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Bill Ackman, founder of Pershing Square Capital Management, on Wednesday warned that Automatic Data Processing Inc. is at risk of becoming like IBM Corp. and again pressured the payrolls services company to work with him to boost shareholder value. “I’m not saying ADP is IBM today, but it is at risk of becoming IBM if they don’t take seriously the competitive threats they face and if they don’t run their businesses as efficiently as they can,” Ackman said during an interview on CNBC. IBM, once an undisputable technology leader, has continued to see its revenue dwindle in recent year. The hedge-fund manager also criticized ADP for “not hitting on all cylinders” and growing as it had in the past. Ackman’s comments follow the disclosure of a letter in which Pershing took its case to restructure ADP directly to its shareholders. Pershing has invested $2.3 billion in ADP and has proposed three nominees to the board. Shares of ADP slid 0.6%.

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