Stocks on Wall Street closed higher after a seesaw session that was as choppy before the official rate decision as it was afterward.A couple of hours before the closing bell, the US Federal Reserve signalled the economic recovery was gathering
Stocks on Wall Street closed higher after a seesaw session that was as choppy before the official rate decision as it was afterward.
A couple of hours before the closing bell, the US Federal Reserve signalled the economic recovery was gathering strength and decided to keep interest rates at "near zero."
This immediately sent the Dow Jones Industrial Average down 55 points, or 0.5%, but thanks to a late rally in financials and techs the losses were pared and the index closed 41.87 points up, or 0.4%, at 10,236.16. Commodities and industrials were the main losers.
The session was marked by a 4.3% for Dow component Caterpillar, which reported a sharp decline in fourth-quarter earnings and a lower forecast for 2010.
By contrast, Boeing finished 7.3% up after reporting a fourth-quarter profit that was bigger than analysts had projected.
Among the Dow's other big losers were Alcoa, off 2.5%, and United Technologies, off 1.8%.
The S&P 500 Index closed 0.5% up at 1097.50, while the Nasdaq Composite Index, buoyed by the launch of Apple's iPad, was up 0.8% at 2221.41.
World markets
In Canada, the S&P/TSX Composite Index fell 0.2% to 11,336.31.
European stocks dropped, following declines in Asian markets as concerns over China's bank-lending restrictions hit equities but lifted the yen and dollar.
The pan-European Stoxx 600 Index was down 0.4% at 248.32. London's FTSE 100 was 0.7% lower at 5234.95, Frankfurt's DAX declined 0.4% to 5646.42 and Paris' CAC-40 fell 0.9% to 3774.64.
Japan's Nikkei 225 was down 0.7%, Australia's S&P/ASX 200 was down 1.5%, South Korea' Kospi Composite fell 0.7%, the Shanghai Composite was 1.1% lower and Hong Kong's Hang Seng index was down 0.7%.
Commodities: Oil, gold down
Crude-oil futures prices fell with the February delivery contract shedding $US1.04 to $US73.67 a barrel.
Gold futures weakened as the US dollar strengthened ahead of the Fed decision. But afterward, the price pllemmeted. The February contract settled $US13.80 lower at $US1084.50 an ounce in New York.
Currencies: Dollar up, yen down
The dollar reversed its course after the Fed decision, falling against the euro and gaining against the yen.
The euro weakened to $US1.4016 from $US1.4079 late on Tuesday. The dollar strengthened to ¥89.94 from ¥89.64, after touching ¥89.11, the lowest point since mid-December.
The euro weakened to ¥126.04 from ¥126.20.
The pound moved to $1.6160 from $1.6143 after an official from the Bank of England suggested that the UK economy may have grown more in the fourth quarter than officially announced this week.
