Stocks shook off an afternoon stumble and ended higher on Wall Street Wednesday after the Federal Reserve announced its first interest rate hike since 2018.
Bond yields also rose as the Fed started to shift its policy to fighting inflation. As markets had anticipated, the Fed raised its short-term rate by 0.25 percentage points. The move marks a shift by the Fed away from maintaining the ultra-low interest rates it had in place during the worst part of the pandemic, which were meant to stimulate the economy. Now that prices are rising, it’s changing course.
On 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 rose 487.93 points, or 3.8%, to 13,436.55.
The Russell 2000 index of smaller companies 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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