U.S. stocks experienced considerable volatility on Wednesday, as investors digested the Federal Reserve’s statement at the end of their two-day meeting.
In this afternoon’s announcement, the Federal Reserve removed the word ‘patient’ from their outlook on a forthcoming increase on interest rates. The change in language is believed to signal an impending end to the six-year period of near-zero interest rates.
However, the remaining language in the statement suggested that it might take until the end of 2015 for the rate hike to occur. Markets were down as much as 150 points on the Dow this morning, but turned positive following the release from the Fed.
Oil prices reversed their recent tumble, moving up almost 2.5% to $44.50 per barrel.
Major earnings reports are due today from FedEx, General Mills and Sonoma.
As of 3:15 p.m., here are the numbers from Wall Street:
Dow Jones Industrial Average: 18,073.56 (+224.48)
NASDAQ: 4,998.80 (+61.37)
S&P 500: 2,106.71 (+32.43)
