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Stock markets, dollar soar after Fed statement

The Fresh Market Inc (NASDAQ:TFM) surged 24% to $28.43 after the us specialty grocery retailer agreed to be acquired by an affiliate of Apollo Global Management for $1.36 billion, completing the specialty grocer’s review of strategic alternatives. The Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 78 points, or 0.5%, to 17,328. Meanwhile, the Nasdaq Composite began the day down 11 points, or 0.2%, at 4,718.

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USA stocks ended higher Wednesday after the Federal Reserve kept its key interest rates unchanged and slashed its projections for rate increases in 2016.

The Standard & Poor’s 500 index fell 2.55 points, or 0.1 per cent, to 2,019.64.

Fed Chair Janet Yellen will hold a press conference at 2:30 p.m. ET.

On the economic front, advance estimates of U.S. retail and food services sales for February decreased 0.1 percent from the previous month to 447.3 billion U.S. dollars, below market expectations, according to the U.S. Commerce Department Tuesday.

At the stock market opening, the American benchmark West Texas Intermediate nearly had a 3 percent increase, trading at $37.40 per barrel, while worldwide benchmark Brent crude was up 2.8 percent at around $39.80 a barrel.

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The Fed said although the US economy has shown signs of moderate strength, there are still concerns and risks posed by global economies.

Shutterstock              The currency market will closely analyze the Federal Reserve’s policy statement for clues on where the dollar is headed