Investing.com – Wall Street rose on Wednesday, as technology stocks rose and investors look ahead to the release of the Federal Reserve meeting minutes.
The S&P 500 rose 10 points or 0.38% as of 10:23 AM ET (15:23 GMT), reaching 2,700 for the first time, while the Dow composite increased 61 points or 0.25% and tech heavy NASDAQ Composite was up 36 points or 0.52%.
The Federal Open Market Committee is set to release its December meeting minutes at 2:00 PM ET (19:00 GMT). At its last meeting the central bank raised interest rates by a quarter point and increased its growth outlook for the economy. Investors will be paying close attention to any indication as to how the U.S. economy is performing and any clues as to when the next rate hike will be.
Technology stocks were among the biggest gainers after the morning bell. Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) surged 1.18% and Facebook (NASDAQ:FB) rose 068% while Netflix (NASDAQ:NFLX) gained 0.72%. General Electric (NYSE:GE) increased 1.45% and luxury car maker Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) inched forward 0.60%.
Meanwhile Semiconductor Advanced Micro Devices (NASDAQ:AMD) skyrocketed 6.01% after rival Intel (NASDAQ:INTC) revealed a security flaw in its chips. Intel was down 2.43%.
Elsewhere Riot Blockchain Inc (NASDAQ:RIOT) dipped 8.55% while Twitter Inc (NYSE:TWTR) fell 1.07% and Bank of America (NYSE:BAC) inched down 0.17%.
In Europe stocks rallied. In Germany the DAX rose 132 points or 1.32% while France’s CAC 40 increased 38 points or 0.73% and in London the FTSE 100 gained 26 points or 0.34%. Meanwhile Spain’s IBEX 35 was up 35 points or 0.35% and the pan-European Euro Stoxx 50 surged 25 points or 0.74%.
In commodities, gold futures rose 0.14% to $1,318.00 a troy ounce while crude oil futures increased 1.42% to 61.23 a barrel. The U.S dollar index, which measures the greenback against a basket of six major currencies, rallied 0.37% to 91.90.