NEW YORK: Wall Street stocks rose early Wednesday, bouncing from the prior session’s losses ahead of Federal Reserve meeting minutes that will be scrutinized for signals on interest rate hikes.
About 15 minutes into trading, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 0.3 percent at 25,047.69.
The broad-based S&P 500 advanced 0.5 percent to 2,728.46, while the tech-rich Nasdaq Composite Index gained 0.5 percent to 7,272.20.
Briefing.com analyst Patrick O’Hare noted that the Fed minutes come from the policy meeting held just before the strong February 2 jobs report was released, igniting a stock market selloff on worries over accelerated rate hikes.
“With the market knowing what it knows now, the minutes will likely prove nettlesome if they connote a hawkish tone,” O’Hare said.
New Fed chief Jay Powell will testify before Congress next week which will provide more insight on his thinking.
The Dow lost about one percent Tuesday, due in large part to a plunge in Walmart shares following disappointing earnings. The big retailer was off 0.1 percent Wednesday.
Qualcomm dropped 1.2 percent after Singapore-based Broadcom cut its offer for the chip maker in the wake of Qualcomm’s revived effort to acquire Dutch rival NXP.
Source: Brecorder.com
