By Noel Randewich
(Reuters) -The Dow Jones Industrial Average on Wednesday notched its first record high close since January 2022 after the Federal Reserve signaled lower borrowing costs are coming in 2024.
The stock benchmark's first all-time high in nearly two years confirmed that it has been in a bull market since tumbling more than 20% through its closing low in September 2022, according to a common definition.
The Dow ended up 1.40% at 37,090.24 points.
Wall Street surged after the Fed held interest rates steady, with a near-unanimous 17 of 19 Fed officials projecting that the policy rate will be lower by the end of 2024.
“While I think the magnitude of the market response is exaggerated, the direction is correct: the Fed for the first time this cycle opened the door to rate cuts across a reasonable forecast horizon, and that is significant,” said Eric Winograd, senior economist at AllianceBernstein (NYSE:AB) in New York.
The Dow's recovery from its September 2022 low was led by Boeing (NYSE:BA), which has more than doubled over that time, and by and Salesforce (NYSE:CRM) and Intel (NASDAQ:INTC), both soaring over 70%.
Walgreens Boots Alliance (NASDAQ:WBA) has been the worst performer among the Dow's 30 constituents over that 14 month period, down 22%.
While most U.S. stock investment funds benchmark their performance against the S&P 500, the Dow is widely followed by Main Street investors.