ON WALL STREET, stock market indices fell due to weaker than expected business results of several companies, but the market was supported by the hope that the Fed will not raise interest rates as aggressively as before in September.The Dow Jones fell 171 points or 0.50 percent, to 33,980 points, while the S&P 500 slipped 0.72 percent, to 4,274 points, and the Nasdaq index 1.25 percent, to 12,938 points.After the solid quarterly business results of the retail chains Walmart and Home Depot encouraged investors the day before, they were disappointed by the results of Target yesterday.The share price of that retail chain fell by more than 2.5 percent, while the index of the entire retail sector slipped 1.2 percent.After a sharp decline in the first half of the year, the S&P 500 index has risen about 13 percent since mid-June, thanks, among other things, to better-than-expected quarterly business results from companies.Most of the companies in the S&P 500 index announced their results for the second quarter, where their profits increased by about 9.7 percent compared to the same period last year.A month and a half ago, earnings were expected to grow by 5.6 percent.And while investors were disappointed yesterday by the business results of several companies, they were encouraged by the minutes from the recent meeting of the US central bank.From that record, investors concluded that the Fed could raise interest rates in September by 0.50, not 0.75 percentage points, as expected so far.To curb inflation, which is at its highest levels in more than 40 years, the Fed has raised interest rates by 2.25 percentage points since March.This will slow down the growth of the economy, but investors hope that the Fed will "land it softly" and not push it into a deep recession.Share prices also fell on European stock exchanges yesterday.The London FTSE index weakened by 0.27 percent, to 7,515 points, while the Frankfurt DAX slipped 2.04 percent, to 13,626 points, and the Paris CAC 0.97 percent, to 6,528 points.