U.S. Stocks Close Wednesday Higher
The Dow Jones Industrial Average advanced 0.26%, adding 129.47 points to settle at 49,662.66. The tech-heavy Nasdaq outpaced its peers, climbing 0.78%, or 175.25 points, to close at 22,753.64. The S&P 500 posted a solid gain of 0.56%, rising 38.09 points to finish at 6,881.31.
Risk appetite improved further as the Volatility Index (VIX) — widely referred to as the "fear index" — retreated 3.3% to 19.62, signaling easing anxiety among market participants.
Markets closely parsed the Fed's January meeting minutes, which showed broad consensus among policymakers in favor of keeping the benchmark interest rate unchanged within a range of 3.5% to 3.75%. Yet divisions emerged over the future direction of monetary policy.
"In considering the outlook for monetary policy, several participants commented that further downward adjustments to the target range for the federal funds rate would likely be appropriate if inflation were to decline in line with their expectations," the document said.
On the corporate front, Nvidia shares surged more than 1.6% after Meta disclosed Tuesday its plans to deploy millions of Nvidia chips as part of a sweeping data center expansion. Fellow "Magnificent Seven" constituent Amazon also attracted strong buying interest, closing up approximately 1.8%.
Economic data offered additional support to sentiment. US industrial output climbed 0.7% month-on-month in January, comfortably beating analyst forecasts of a 0.4% rise. Separately, new orders for domestically manufactured durable goods slipped 1.4% in December compared to the prior month — a shallower decline than markets had anticipated.
Legal Disclaimer:
MENAFN provides the
information “as is” without warranty of any kind. We do not accept
any responsibility or liability for the accuracy, content, images,
videos, licenses, completeness, legality, or reliability of the information
contained in this article. If you have any complaints or copyright
issues related to this article, kindly contact the provider above.
Legal Disclaimer:
EIN Presswire provides this news content "as is" without warranty of any kind. We do not accept any responsibility or liability for the accuracy, content, images, videos, licenses, completeness, legality, or reliability of the information contained in this article. If you have any complaints or copyright issues related to this article, kindly contact the author above.
