The US markets ended higher on Wednesday following the release of the minutes of the Federal Reserve's early November monetary policy meeting, which provided further evidence the central bank is considering slowing the pace of its interest rate hikes. The minutes said a substantial majority of meeting participants judged that a slowing in the pace of rate hikes would likely soon be appropriate. The minutes said a slower pace of rate hikes would better allow the Fed to assess progress toward its goals of maximum employment and price stability. However, a few other participates suggested it could be advantageous to wait until the rates were more clearly in restrictive territory and there were more concrete signs that inflation pressures were receding significantly before slowing the pace of rate hikes.
The minutes also said participants agreed further interest rate increases would be appropriate in order to attain a sufficiently restrictive stance to bring inflation down over time. Various participants also indicated the ultimate level of the federal funds rate that would be necessary to achieve the Fed's goals was somewhat higher than they had previously expected. On the sectoral front, tobacco stocks showed a substantial move to the upside on the day, driving the NYSE Arca Tobacco Index up by 2.9 percent to a three-month closing high. Considerable strength was also visible among computer hardware stocks, as reflected by the 1.7 percent gain posted by the NYSE Arca Computer Hardware Index.
Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 95.96 points or 0.28 percent to 34,194.06, Nasdaq surged 110.91 points or 0.99 percent to 11,285.32 and S&P 500 was up by 23.68 points 0.59 percent to 4,027.26.
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