Stock Market Today: Dow Rallies as Yield Slips Boost Tech After Larger Fed Hike
2022.06.15 23:36
By Yasin Ebrahim
Investing.com — The Dow jumped Wednesday, led by growth stocks including tech as Treasury yields slipped after the Federal Reserve delivered its biggest rate since 1994.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 1%, or 303 points, the Nasdaq was up 2.5%, and the S&P 500 rose1.5%.
The Fed raised its benchmark rate by a larger than expected 0.75%, with Fed Chairman Jerome Powell admitting that the recent upside inflation had forced the central bank’s hand into tightening monetary policy by more than expected.
In the press conference that followed, Powell said there was a need to “front load” rate hikes, signaling the pace of the rate hikes will likely ease as data shows that demand is slowing.
The central bank also laid out a steeper path for rate hikes, forecasting another 175 basis points of hikes to come this year. Powell said that either a “50 or 75 basis points rate hike” would be appropriate at the July meeting.
Treasury yields, which had gained momentum in the days leading up to the decision, fell sharply, paving the way for the growth stocks to rack up gains.
Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL), Amazon (NASDAQ:AMZN), Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META), Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) and Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) were sharply higher. Semiconductor stocks were also in ascendency, led by Advanced Micro Devices (NASDAQ:AMD) and NVIDIA (NASDAQ:NVDA).
Beaten up consumer stocks clawed back some of their recent losses, supported by travel and leisure stocks.
Caesars Entertainment Corporation (NASDAQ:CZR), Norwegian Cruise Line (NYSE:NCLH) and Penn National Gaming (NASDAQ:PENN) were up more 4%.
Energy was the sole sector in the red as data showing U.S. weekly crude inventories unexpectedly increased as domestic production jumped to its highest level since April 2002.
APA (NASDAQ:APA), Exxon Mobil Corp (NYSE:XOM), ONEOK Inc (NYSE:OKE) were among the biggest decliners, down by about 1%.
