Wall Street Rises Sharply, Powell Says Ease Interest Rate Worries

Source: Reuters | Editor: Herlina Kartika Dewi

KONTAN.CO.ID – NEW YORK. Wall Street’s main indexes rose sharply more than 1% in late trading Wednesday (2/3) after Federal Reserve Governor Jerome Powell signaled the central bank may raise interest rates lower than investors feared.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 596.40 points, or 1.79%, to 33,891.35, the S&P 500 gained 80.28 points, or 1.86%, to 4,386.54 and the Nasdaq Composite gained 219.56 points, or 1.62% to 13,752.02.

The volume of stock trading transactions on US exchanges reached 13.1 billion shares with an average of 12.4 billion shares in the last 20 trading days.

quote ReutersOn Thursday (3/3), Powell said he was likely to support a 25 basis point rate hike in March, quelling some concerns about the potential for more aggressive rate hikes.

This, for trader sees a 95% probability of a 25 basis point increase in March.

Also Read: Wall Street Rebound, Powell Signals Rising Quarterly Interest This Month

The S&P 500’s 11 sector indexes rose, with the financials sector soaring 2.6% after falling sharply so far this week. The banking index rebounded 3% after hitting its lowest level since September 2021 in the previous session.

Energy stocks continued their run higher, with the S&P 500 energy index rallying 2.2% as Brent crude surged to near an eight-year high after Western sanctions disrupted transportation of commodities exported by Russia.

Russia’s week-long invasion has yet to achieve its goal of toppling the Ukrainian government. Ukraine said they were fighting in the port of Kherson, the first major city Russia claimed it had captured, while air strikes and bombings caused further destruction in other cities.

“Day to day you go from fear of an escalation that could make things really bad to hope that it won’t actually happen and cooler heads will prevail, and that the economy is strong enough to get through this,” said Tom Martin. , senior portfolio manager at GLOBALT Investments in Atlanta.

Apple shares rose 2.1% after announcing the product launch for March 8, when it is expected to promote a low-cost version of the popular iPhone with 5G.