Wall Street bulls breathed a sigh of relief Wednesday when the March minutes from the Federal Open Market Committee meeting indicated the Fed is likely to keep short-term interest rates low even after economic thresholds have been met, fueling a late-day surge in stocks.
Equities built on early, conservative gains attributed to better-than-expected earnings from Alcoa Inc. (NYSE:AA), which helped alleviate some anxiety surrounding Q1 results. Bargain-hunting in social media and technology stocks helped the Nasdaq pierce its 50-day moving average and close 1.5% higher.
Wednesday's calendar was, again, very light with only wholesale inventories and sales, which rose 0.5% and 0.7%, respectively, in February.
Here's Where The Markets Stood At The Close
US MARKETS
- Dow Jones Industrial Index was up 181 points (+1.1%) at 16,437
- S&P 500 was up 20 points (+1.1%) at 1,872
- Nasdaq Composite Index was up 70 points (+1.7%) at 4,183
GLOBAL SENTIMENT
- FTSE 100 was up 0.68%
- Nikkei 225 was down 2.10%
- Hang Seng Index was up 1.09%
- Shanghai China Composite Index was up 0.33%
UPSIDE MOVERS
- (+) ATHL Entered into multiple definitive agreements to acquire certain properties for an aggregate purchase price of $873 million in cash.
- (+) PCRX Offering and expanded manufacturing could be good news for Exparel
- (+) TLOG Tumor treatment using birinapant data to be published
DOWNSIDE MOVERS
- (-) EBR Increase in Brazilian inflation raised concerns about impact on the electric utility
- (-) ISRG Q1 revenue will fall 24% from a year earlier to $465 million, compared with the consensus estimate of $536 million
- (-) AHT Offering Is Upsized to 7.5 mln shares, from 7 mln shares, prices at 4.5% discount
After Hours Stock News From Midnight Trader.
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