NEW YORK (CNN/Money) - U.S. stocks briefly gained ground Wednesday afternoon after the Federal Reserve cut interest rates by a half-percentage point. But the Fed's decision to change its bias to neutral seemed to puzzle investors and the market soon turned down.

Around 2:25 p.m. ET, the Dow Jones industrial average (down 63.18 to 8615.09, Charts) and the Nasdaq composite (down 12.94 to 1388.23, Charts) both wiped out the gains scored immediately after the Fed's announcement. The major indexes were little changed before the 2:15 p.m. ET decision.

Central bankers cut the target for the federal funds rate, an overnight lending rate, to 1.25 percent. It was the first cut this year after 11 reductions in 2001.

In a statement, the Fed said that economic data continued to show weakness in spending, productivity and employment.