Stocks shrugged off an afternoon slump and ended higher on Wall Street on Wednesday after the Federal Reserve announced its first interest rate hike since 2018.
Bond yields also rose as the Fed began to shift its policy focus to fighting inflation. As markets had expected, the Fed raised its short-term rate by 0.25 percentage points. The move marks a move away from keeping the ultra-low interest rates it had in place during the worst part of the pandemic, which were meant to stimulate the economy, by the Fed. Now that prices are rising, that is changing course.
Wednesday:
The S&P 500 rose 95.41 points, or 2.2%, to 4,357.86.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 518.76 points, 1.5%, to 34,063.10.
The Nasdaq gained 487.93 points, or 3.8%, to 13,436.55.
The Russell 2000 Small Business Index rose 61.75 points, or 3.1%, to 2,030.72.
For the week:
The S&P 500 is up 153.55 points, or 3.7%.
The Dow is up 1,118.91 points, or 3.4%.
The Nasdaq is up 592.75 points, or 4.6%.
The Russell 2000 is up 51.05 points, or 2.6%.
For the year:
The S&P 500 is down 408.32 points, or 8.6%.
The Dow is down 2,275.20 points, or 6.3%.
The Nasdaq is down 2,208.42 points, or 14.1%.
The Russell 2000 is down 214.59 points, or 9.6%.
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