Wall Street opens mixed and Dow Jones rises 0.24% after Fed announcement

(Corrects Dow rally in headline)

New York, December 16 (EFE). – Wall Street opened mixed this Thursday with its main index, Dow Jones Industrials, up 0.24%, after an announcement yesterday by the US Federal Reserve (Fed) that the cut in economic stimulus will accelerate due to the “strength” of the economy.

Ten minutes after the start of the session on the New York Stock Exchange, the Dow Jones index rose 86.36 points to 36,013.79 points. While the selective S&P 500 Index rose 0.14%, or 6.57 units, to 4,716.42.

On the other hand, the Nasdaq Market Composite Index, in which technology companies with the highest valuation are listed, fell 0.06%, or 9.28 integers, to 15556.30.

The New York stock market was encouraged by the Federal Reserve’s announcement yesterday, which confirmed that it would accelerate the reduction of the bond-buying program, the economic stimulus it launched in the face of the crisis caused by the Corona virus.

“The economy is strong and no longer needs this monetary support,” said Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell, who, on the other hand, justified waiting until March to phase out debt purchases, because, according to him, sharp economic strikes do not. It fits.

Likewise, the US central bank has kept interest rates currently unchanged in the range between 0% and 0.25%, despite the fact that inflation stabilized at an annual rate of 6.8% in November, the highest figure in nearly 40. years in the country.

The Fed’s announcement appears to have prevailed, at least for now, due to concerns about the omicron variable expansion of the coronavirus negatively impacting investor sentiment.

By sectors, almost the whole day started positively with energy (1.16%), raw materials (0.86%) and finance (0.84%) in the lead, while technology (-0.41%) and non-essential consumer goods only (-0.29%).

Among the 30 companies listed on Dow Jones, IBM (2.2%), Caterpillar (2.06%), Amgen (1.99%) and Dow (1.87%) were the most affected, while Salesforce (-1.18%), Home Depot (-1.18%), and Dow (1.87%) were the most affected. -1.15%) and Walgreens (-0.4%).

In other markets, Texas oil rose to $71.40 a barrel, gold rose to $1,788.70 an ounce, Treasury yields fell to 1.426% and the dollar lost ground against the euro, with a change of 1.1334. EFE

jfu / vh

© EFE 2021. Redistribution and redistribution of all or part of the contents of the Efe Services is expressly prohibited, without the prior and express consent of Agencia EFE SA