Fed Minutes Show Rate Hikes Slowing Down, Indexes Climb
November 23,2022 04:22 pm EST
U.S. stocks rose Wednesday as meeting minutes from the Federal Reserve showed that the central bank is looking to hand out smaller rate hikes in the coming months as inflation cools off.
The Dow Jones Industrials jumped 95.96 points to end Wednesday at 34,194.06
The S&P 500 added 23.68 points to 4,027.26.
The NASDAQ roared ahead 110.91 points, or 1%, to 11,285.32.
Shares of Nordstrom fell 4.2% after the department store chain reaffirmed its forecast. However, Nordstrom beat profit and sales expectations in its latest results, according to consensus expectations on Refinitiv. Tesla rose 7.8% after Citi upgraded shares to neutral from sell. Deere surged more than 5% on an earnings beat.
Minutes from the Fed''s November meeting signaled that the central bank is seeing progress in its fight against high inflation and is looking to slow the pace of rate hikes, meaning smaller ones through the end of this year and into 2023.
Jobless claims data came in higher than expected at 240,000 for the week ending Nov. 19 where economists expected 225,000, signaling that the labor market may be weakening. At the same time, however, durable goods orders for October were stronger than anticipated, coming in at 1%, more than the 0.5% expected.
Earlier in November, the central bank approved a fourth consecutive 0.75-percentage-point hike that brought rates to their highest level since 2008. Economists are forecasting a half-percentage-point increase in December, and smaller rate hikes next year.
Markets will be closed on Thursday for the Thanksgiving holiday and will close early on Friday.
Prices for the 10-year Treasury gained ground, lowering yields to 3.70% from Tuesday''s 3.76%. Treasury prices and yields move in opposite directions.
Oil prices sank $3.48 to $77.47 U.S. a barrel.
Gold prices climbed $10.60 to $1,750.50 U.S. an ounce.
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