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U.S. stocks closed higher Wednesday after Federal Reserve officials signaled their willingness to slow the rate of interest rate hikes.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 97.01 points, or 0.28%, to close at 34,195.11. The S&P 500 rose 23.88 points, or 0.60%, to close at 4,027.46, and the Nasdaq Composite rose 11.09 points, or 0.99%, to close at 11,285.32.
Minutes from the November meeting of the Federal Reserve show a majority in favor of slowing the rate of interest rate increase because inflation appears to be going in the right direction.
“A substantial majority of participants judged that a slowing in the pace of increase would likely soon be appropriate,” the minutes read. “The uncertain lags and magnitudes associated with the effects of monetary policy actions on economic activity and inflation were among the reasons cited regarding why such an assessment was important.”
The central bank’s Federal Open Market Committee hiked rates 0.75% for the fourth consecutive time at its November meeting. Markets had been weighed down over concerns that the Federal Reserve would continue to aggressively raise interest rates at that rate to get inflation under control.
A 0.5% increase is now expected in December.
“A rate hike of 50 basis points would still be significant,” Philadelphia Fed President Patrick Harker said in a speech earlier this month.
Some stocks that saw gains Wednesday included Tesla (TSLA), which closed at $183.20, up $13.29, or 7.82%. Meta Platform’s (META) price of shares rose $0.80, or 0.72%, to close at $112.24.
“What it really shows is you’ve got a market that’s jittery about one thing and one thing only, and that’s the Federal Reserve and what their thoughts are on monetary policy,” Art Hogan, chief market strategist at B. Riley Financial, told CNBC.
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