The market volatility from the last two days continued on Wall Street with the release of the latest minutes from the U.S. central bank‘s April policy meeting. After being up by 100 points midday, the Dow quickly dropped into red figures following the release of the Fed’s April minutes.
According to the minutes:
“Most participants judged that if incoming data were consistent with economic growth picking up in the second quarter, labor markets continued to strengthen, and inflation making progress toward the committee’s 2 percent objective, then it likely would be appropriate for the committee to increase the target range for the federal funds rate in June.“
See complete Fed minutes from April 2016 here.
Essentially the Federal Reserve said at their April meeting that it will likely raise interest rates in June if economic data points to stronger second-quarter growth & employment, so it appears the central bank is much closer to raising rates again than Wall Street expects. At its April meeting, the Fed kept its target rate in a range of 0.25 percent to 0.50 percent. The Fed raised rates in December for the first time in nearly a decade.
Here are the final numbers from Wednesday, May 18th on Wall Street:
Dow Jones Industrial Average: 17,526.62 (-3.36 / -0.02 %)
NASDAQ: 4,739.12 (+23.39/ +0.50 %)
S&P 500: 2,047.63 (+00.42/ +0.02%)
