Stocks moved higher Wednesday as meeting minutes from the Federal Reserve showed that policymakers are looking to issue smaller rate hikes in the coming months in response to cooling inflation. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose nearly 100 points, while the S&P 500 and Nasdaq Composite added 0.6% and 1%, respectively.
Here's how the market settled on Thursday:
S&P 500 Index
Dow Jones Industrial Average
Nasdaq Composite Index
Minutes for the Fed's November meeting released Wednesday afternoon signaled that the central bank is seeing progress from its aggressive monetary policy and is looking to slow the pace of interest rate hikes heading towards the new year.
"A substantial majority of participants judged that a slowing in the pace of increase would likely soon be appropriate," the minutes stated. "The uncertain ags and magnitures associated with the effects of monetary policy actions on economic activity and inflation were among the reasons cited regarding why such an assessment is important."
Back in November, the central bank issued a fourth consecutive 75-basis-point rate hike, bringing interest rates to their highest level since 2008. Wall Street expects the Fed to deliver a 0.5 percentage point hike at the conclusion of its December meeting.
Investors were also met with a series of economic reports Wednesday as Wall Street somewhat ends the shortened holiday trading week.
Initial unemployment claims rose to 240,000 for the week ending November 19, marking the highest total since mid-August and likely signals that the labor market may be weakening in response to the Fed's efforts.
A readout of durable goods orders for October came in stronger-than-anticipated, showing orders rose 1% last month which beat expectations for a 0.5% increase.
The S&P Global's preliminary reading on business activity in November showed a slowdown in economic output, with the firm's manufacturing Purchasing Managers' Index (PMI) dropping to a 30-month low and service sector PMI fell to a three-month low.
New home sales unexpectedly climbed higher in October, increasing by 7.5% at an annualized rate of 632,000--much faster than the 570,000 anticipated.
Finally, consumer sentiment data from the University of Michigan fell to 56.8 from October's print of 59.9 in November's preliminary reading.
"Along with the ongoing impact of inflation, consumer attitudes have also been weighed down by rising borrowing costs, declining asset values, and weakening labor market expectations," said Joanne Hsu, director of the Survey of Consumers, in a statement.
Wall Street will be closed on Thursday for the U.S. Thanksgiving holiday and will close early on Friday.
