US markets rose slightly on Wednesday after Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell stated that the bank plans to lower interest rates later this year in written remarks prior to his congressional testimony.
“If the economy evolves broadly as expected, it will likely be appropriate to begin dialing back policy restraint at some point this year,” Powell mentioned in a statement. “But the economic outlook is uncertain, and ongoing progress toward our 2% inflation objective is not assured.”
The S&P 500 was up 36.33 points, or 0.72 percent, at 5,114.98, the Nasdaq Composite was up 158.53 points, and the Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 243.71 points, or 0.63 percent, at 38,828.90 at 9:31 a.m. ET.
CrowdStrike Holdings, a cybersecurity business, surged 18.8% after projecting yearly results that above Wall Street projections.
Nvidia’s stock increased 1.9%, Amazon’s increased by 0.8%, and Meta’s stock increased by 1.8%. As bitcoin recovered, cryptocurrency equities like MicroStrategy and Coinbase Global increased 5.7% and 10.9%, respectively.
On Wednesday, most European stock markets saw increases. The FTSE 100 in Britain increased by 0.3% to 7,668.76 points. The CAC 40 for France increased by 0.1% to 7,940.17. The DAX in Germany increased by 0.1% to 17,708.55. The Euro Stoxx 50 increased by 0.4% to 4,910.49.
The Shanghai Composite of China dropped 0.3% to 3,039.93. The Nikkei 225 in Japan stayed unchanged at 40,090.78.
