U.S. equities rise as traders digest Fed comments on upcoming rate hike

  • US stocks edged higher on Thursday as traders mulled over upcoming interest rate hikes.
  • The Dow jumped more than 300 points, boosted by Salesforce’s earnings on strong corporate earnings.
  • Atlanta Fed President Rafael Bostic said he was “very strongly” in favor of a quarter-point rate hike.

US stocks rose on Thursday as comments from a Federal Reserve spokesman about an upcoming interest rate hike cheered investors.

After opening in mixed territory, the major indices closed higher even as 2-year bond yields hit levels not seen in over a decade. The Dow Jones Industrial Average edged up more than 300 points, leading to gains helped by Salesforce’s strong earnings.

Atlanta Fed President Rafael Bostic said he was “very strongly” in favor of a quarter-point hike at the moment, adding that it was important for the central bank to tread carefully.

This comes after other Fed officials hinted at the possibility of a half-percentage hike as the latest data points to a resilient economy that needs more of a slowdown to bring inflation under control.

Earlier Thursday, jobless claims fell for the third straight week to stay below 200,000, indicating that the job market is still strong.

Here’s where the US stocks were at the close at 4:00 pm ET Thursday:

Here’s what else happened today:

In commodities, bonds and cryptocurrencies:

  • West Texas Intermediate crude fell 0.62% to $78.12 a barrel. Brent crude, the international oil benchmark, rose 0.4% to $84.60 a barrel.
  • Gold fell 0.3% to $1,840.20 an ounce.
  • The 10-year Treasury yield rose six basis points to 4.06%.
  • Bitcoin fell 0.46% to $23,683 and Ether fell 0.28% to $1,654.

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