The Dow fell another 34 points today and the consensus is that it was due to continuing modest worries over next week's so-called Brexit.  As expected, there was no interest rate announcement from the Fed this afternoon.  As expected, Janet Yellen's remarks were reassuring that no rate hikes would be coming in the near future and that the situation in Britain was certainly factored into that decision.  But here's the thing.  The Dow was actually up almost 90 points during the session and only came crashing down after 3:30 p.m. This does not appear at all correlated to either Britain or the Fed.  But with the market reacting so moderately overall, it would seem that investors don't really believe the polls in England and don't really think the Brexit is going to happen.  Recall the same thing happened with Scotland a couple years ago where the polls were all wrong and the Scots voted to stay in the U.K.  So let's stay calm until there's a reason not to.  Even the "fear gauge" fell almost 2% today.  Volume was a little above average at 6.8 billion shares.

Markets | Wed Jun 15, 2016 6:36pm EDT

Wall Street falls as Fed holds steady and Brexit vote looms

BY NOEL RANDEWICH

DJ:  17,640.17  -34.65       NAS: 4,834.93  -8.62          S&P:  2,071.50  -3.82  

REUTERS/LUCAS JACKSON

Wall Street fell for a fifth straight session on Wednesday after the Federal Reserve left interest rates unchanged and investors stewed over an impending vote in Britain on whether to leave the European Union.

Major U.S. stock indexes spent most of the day with gains but abruptly fell late in the session, bringing the S&P 500's loss in the past week to 2.2 percent, in large part because of fears that a fractured EU could critically damage an already feeble global economy.

It was the S&P 500's longest losing streak since the five-day decline that culminated in its 2016 low on Feb. 11.  While the U.S. central bank put off an immediate rate hike, it lowered its economic growth forecast and signaled it still plans two rate increases this year.

Traders had not expected a rate increase this month by the Fed's Federal Open Market Committee, or FOMC, but they have been eager for clues about the health of the economy and the trajectory of future hikes.

Investors have become more nervous ahead of a vote in Britain next week on whether to leave the EU, with recent opinion polls indicating growing support for such a move.

"It is certainly one of the uncertainties that we discussed and that factored into today's decision," Fed Chair Janet Yellen said at a news conference.

The CBOE market volatility index .VIX, Wall Street's "fear gauge", fell 1.8 percent for the day but was still at elevated levels not seen in over three months.

"This is an FOMC announcement that really speaks to a global weakness and the bottom line is it underscores the fact the U.S. is not an island and the global markets and economy are more interconnected than they have ever been," said Peter Kenny, Senior Market Strategist at Global Markets Advisory Group in Berkeley Heights, New Jersey.

The Dow Jones industrial average .DJI lost 0.2 percent to end at 17,640.17 and the S&P 500.SPX fell 0.18 percent to 2,071.50.  The Nasdaq Composite .IXIC dropped 0.18 percent to 4,834.93.

About 6.8 billion shares changed hands on U.S. exchanges, about average over the past 20 trading days, according to Thomson Reuters data.

Six of the 10 major S&P sectors dipped, led lower by the utilities index .SPLRCU, down 0.71 percent.

Chipmaker Intel (INTC.O) fell 1.65 percent and provided the biggest drag on the S&P 500. So far in 2016, the S&P 500 is up 1 percent.

Advancing issues outnumbered decliners on the NYSE by 1,833 to 1,189. On the Nasdaq, 1,536 issues rose and 1,271 fell.

The S&P 500 index showed 12 new 52-week highs and one new low, while the Nasdaq recorded 38 new highs and 37 new lows.