US stocks closed modestly higher on Wednesday after the Federal Reserve held its benchmark rate steady, with all three major indexes finishing in the green even as the bond market did the tightening, according to market reports. The S&P 500 added 21.38 points, or 0.28%, to 7,743.98, the Nasdaq Composite climbed 72.04 points, or 0.27%, to 26,549.85, and the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 97.53 points, or 0.19%, to 52,475.10, according to the Motley Fool and Market Briefer. The Russell 2000 rose 0.41% to 2,830.51.
Chips carried the session
Chip stocks carried the session on both sides of the Pacific after South Korea’s SK Hynix posted record results — Seoul’s KOSPI surged 6.63% — while oil climbed on a claimed missile strike against Saudi Arabia’s largest refinery, with Brent settling near $115 a barrel, according to Market Briefer. Vertiv Holdings jumped almost 17% on bullish long-term AI infrastructure demand forecasts, and Oracle surged 11% after an investor day in which it set out new financial targets, according to the Motley Fool. Energy stocks led sector gains, while real estate and utilities retreated, according to the Motley Fool. Gold rose 0.10% to $4,068.14 as of the US market close, and the 10-year Treasury yield rose to about 5.02% to 5.05%.
After the bell, a split
The regular session’s calm gave way to a split after hours: Microsoft rose about 4% on its cloud beat while Alphabet fell about 10% on its miss, according to CNBC, dragging Nasdaq-100 futures down about 1.4% early Thursday. With two Fed officials dissenting in favour of an immediate hike and futures pricing roughly an 85% chance of a December increase, borrowers face a long end of the curve that keeps moving against them even when the committee stands still, according to Market Briefer. Thursday brings Amazon, Eli Lilly, Intel, Mastercard and Merck results, alongside Q3 GDP and September PCE data at 8:30 a.m. ET.
Related: Fed Holds Rates at 3.75%-4% as Two Officials Push for Hike and Microsoft Beats on Cloud as Alphabet Misses and Shares Slide.
