Övünç Kutlu
24 November 2022•Update: 24 November 2022
ANKARA
US stocks closed with gains on Wednesday, as the Federal Reserve's minutes from its latest meeting calmed investors' worries amid future rate hikes.
The Dow Jones increased almost 96 points, or 0.28%, to finish at 34,194. The S&P 500 added 23 points, or 0.59%, to 4,027.
The tech-heavy Nasdaq soared 110 points, or 0.99%, to close the day at 11,285.
The New York Stock Exchange and the Nasdaq will be closed on Thursday due to Thanksgiving. They will kick off Friday at the regular opening hour 9.30 a.m. EDT but will close early at 1.00 p.m. EDT.
Investors adopted an optimistic view about the Fed's aggressive monetary tightening after minutes showed that the central bank's officials discussed earlier this month that they are considering to slow the pace of rate hikes.
"A substantial majority of participants judged that a slowing in the pace of increase would likely soon be appropriate," according to minutes released from the Fed's last monetary policy meeting on Nov. 1 - 2.
The VIX volatility index, also known as the fear index, fell 3.9% to 20.46. The 10-year US Treasury yield fell 1.6% to 3.696%.
The dollar index lost 1% to 106.09, still around its highest in 20 years, while the euro added 0.9% to $1.0398 against the greenback.
Precious metals were on the rise with Fed minutes as gold added 0.6% to $1,750 per ounce and silver soared 2.1% to $21.52.
Oil prices extended their losses and plummeted more than 4%. Global benchmark Brent crude was trading at $84.75 per barrel -- a loss of 4.1%. US benchmark West Texas Intermediate crude was around $77.41, down 4.4%.
