The S&P 500 crossed the record 7,000-mark on Wednesday, ahead of the US Federal Reserve’s rate decision later in the day. The wider index rose 0.3% or 20 points to open at 7,002, whereas the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite opened 0.6% or 144.55 points higher at 23,961.65.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 0.10% or 51 points at 49,054.02 in the early minutes of trade.
“We expect US equities to stay supported and forecast the S&P 500 to reach 7,700 by year-end with broad-based gains,” Ulrike Hoffmann-Burchardi at UBS Global Wealth Management told Bloomberg News.
Fed Chair Jerome Powell will announce whether the interest rate will be trimmed, or kept steady, at 2:30 pm EST (12:30 am IST). The US Federal Reserve is expected to keep interest rates unchanged following its two-day key meeting on Wednesday.
The ongoing Fed meeting comes amid reports that the central bank is facing unusual political pressure from the Trump administration for rate cuts. Only three US Fed policy meetings remain before Chairman Jerome Powell’s eight-year stint as the world’s top central banker ends.
Chipmaker Intel Corp. surged over 10% to trade at $48.45, boosted positive sentiment around tech earnings. Other tech titans like bellwether Nvidia Corp., Advanced Micro Devices Inc., Meta Platforms Inc., Tesla Inc., and Amazon.com Inc. also traded higher. Nvidia and its rival AMD rose nearly 2% to trade at $191.71 and $255.86, respectively.
After the markets opened, majority of the sectoral indices traded in the green with Information Technology and Energy sectors leading the gains and Healthcare and Industrials sectors leading the decline.
Among the commodites crude oil prices rose with Brent Crude trading 0.9% higher at $67.19 a barrel and West Texas Intermediate trading 1.28% higher at $63.19 a barrel. Spot gold prices also soared over 2% to trade at 5,295.83 an ounce.
The Bloomberg Dollar Spot Index strengthened against global currencies and rose 0.3%. The euro fell 0.5% to $1.1976, British pound fell 0.4% to $1.3799, and Japanese yen fell 0.3% to 152.71 per dollar.
Bitcoin, the largest traded cryptocurrency, also rose 0.4% to $89,336.95.
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