NEW YORK: Wall Street’s main indexes rose on Thursday after Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell said the US central bank would be “proceeding carefully” on further interest rate hikes.
Megacap stocks, barring Tesla, turned positive after Powell’s prepared remarks before the Economic Club of New York. Traders now see a 68% chance of no rate hike in December compared with a near 50% chance before Powell’s remarks, according to CME’s FedWatch Tool, while bets on a pause in November remained unchanged.
Powell, however, added the economy’s strength and continued tight labor markets could warrant further Federal Reserve interest rate increases.
“Powell continued to leave optionality open for the Fed, in terms of future rate hikes, but did nothing to change the narrative that the Fed will keep rates unchanged at their next meeting and is relatively likely to keep them unchanged for the rest of this year as well.” said Chris Zaccarelli, chief investment officer at Independent Advisor Alliance.
Electric-vehicle maker (EV) slid 9.0% after it missed Wall Street estimates for third-quarter gross margin, profit and revenue.
Netflix soared 15.3% after the world’s No. 1 streaming company by subscriber count said it was raising prices for some of its plans in the United States, Britain and France after adding 9 million users in the third quarter.
At 12:16 p.m. ET, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 58.52 points, or 0.17%, at 33,723.60, the S&P 500 was up 5.57 points, or 0.13%, at 4,320.17, and the Nasdaq Composite was up 17.06 points, or 0.13%, at 13,331.36.
Communications services and information technology led gains amongst the major S&P 500 sectors.
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