Wall Street ended another tumultuous day of trading Wednesday with small gains for the major stock indexes, as investors sifted through minutes from the Federal Reserve’s most recent interest rate policy meeting for hints about what the central bank would do next to combat inflation.
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The S&P 500 gained 0.4%, it’s third straight gain, after fluctuating between gains and losses for much of the morning and early afternoon. The Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 0.2% while the Nasdaq gained 0.3%.
Small-company stocks, on the other hand, continued in a slump, indicating that investors are concerned about economic development. The Russell 2000 lost 0.8%.
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Bond yields increased dramatically. The 10-year Treasury yield, which influences mortgage rates, increased to 2.93% from 2.81% late Tuesday.
The minutes from the Fed’s two-day meeting last month show that the central bank’s policymakers concluded higher interest rates could be needed to restrain what they saw as a worrying trend: consumers starting to anticipate higher inflation. The policymakers also acknowledged that more rate hikes could weaken the economy.
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The S&P 500 rose 13.69 points to 3,845.08. The Dow gained 69.86 points to 31,037.68. The Nasdaq rose 39.61 points to 11,361.85. The Russell 2000 fell 13.78 points to 1,727.55.
Major indexes have swung from sharp losses to gains on a day-to-day and even hour-to-hour basis lately, reflecting investors’ worries about inflation, rising interest rates and a potential recession. The broader market, though, is still mired in a deep slump that has dragged the S&P 500 into a bear market, over 20% below its most recent high.
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Wall Street’s key concern centres around the Federal Reserve’s effort to rein in inflation, and the risk its plan could send the economy into a recession.
Surging oil prices worsened inflation by sending gasoline prices in the U.S. to record highs. The price of U.S. crude oil is still up 36% for the year but has been slipping throughout the week in a welcome sign for a market hoping for any signal that inflation could be easing.
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U.S. crude oil fell 1% Wednesday. The price on Tuesday settled below $100 a barrel for the first time since early May.
Wall Street will be closely watching the U.S. government’s release of employment data for June on Friday.
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Technology and health care stocks accounted for a big share of the benchmark S&P 500 index’s gains Wednesday. Cisco Systems rose 1.7% and Pfizer added 2.1%.
Energy sector stocks, which lost ground along with crude oil prices, were among the few sectors that closed lower. Hess remained in the red. Hess dropped 2.7%.
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Delivery service DoorDash fell 7.4% following Amazon’s announcement of a deal with rival delivery service Grubhub.