Wall Street stocks finished with large gains on Wednesday after traders viewed new Federal Reserve meeting minutes as a sign the US central bank will remain dovish on monetary policy.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average jumped 274.83 points (1.64 per cent) to 16,994.22.
The broad-based S&P 500 gained 33.79 (1.75 per cent) to 1,968.89, while the tech-rich Nasdaq Composite Index soared 83.39 (1.90 per cent) to 4,468.59.
Minutes from the Fed’s September meeting showed policy-makers cautious about rushing into rate hikes, and worried that the dollar is rising too fast.
There was also clear concern over slow growth in Europe and elsewhere.
Markets had a “major liftoff” after the minutes, said Michael James, managing director of equity trading at Wedbush Securities.
“Traders’ interpretation was that rates are not going to be going up that much or as quickly as maybe people are fearing,” James said.
Financial stocks rose, including Dow members JPMorgan Chase (+1.9 per cent) and Goldman Sachs (+1.6 per cent), as well as Wells Fargo (+2.1 per cent) and Citigroup (+2.5 per cent).
Most tech stocks had a good day, including Dow members Intel (+2.4 per cent) and Microsoft (+2.8 per cent) and eBay (+2.9 per cent).
Apple jumped 2.1 per cent after announcing an October 16 event that is expected to launch a new line of iPad tablet computers.
Monsanto, the farm technology giant, advanced 1.9 per cent as fiscal 2014 profits rose 10.4 per cent to $2.7 billion.
Costco Wholesale gained 2.8 per cent as fourth-quarter net income of $1.58 per share bested expectations by six cents. Comparable sales rose six per cent.
Comcast advanced 2.9 per cent after shareholders approved the acquisition of Time Warner Cable. The merger still needs to be approved by the Federal Communications Commission and other regulators.
Shareholders of Time Warner Cable (+3.2 per cent) are scheduled to vote on the transaction on Thursday.
Bond prices were mixed. The yield on the 10-year US Treasury fell to 2.33 per cent from 2.35 per cent on Tuesday, while the 30-year held steady at 3.06 per cent. Bond prices and yields move inversely.
