The Dow Jones industrial average gained 49 points, or 0.3 percent, to 18,177. Visit MarketWatch.com for more information on this news. The component is made up of mostly tax-efficient REITs, or real estate investment trusts, which are often attractive to investors seeking dividends or a high yield stock that acts like a bond.
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In the vote, three of the 10 members plumped for a rise, but delving into the minutes of the meeting, the committee is clear that an increase will arrive before the end of the year. Murphy Oil and Transocean both rose 5 percent.
Trading followed a pattern that has become familiar in the last several months.
World stock indexes jumped and the Nasdaq hit a record high yesterday while bonds rallied, a day after the Federal Reserve signalled an increasingly cautious approach to future United States rate increases.
The S&P 500 index showed 26 new 52-week highs and no new lows, while the Nasdaq recorded 80 new highs and three new lows.
“It’s another example of the issues facing investors right now, particularly pension funds and retirement funds, that they are all chasing yield in the same places”, said Ian Winer, co-head of equities trading at Wedbush Securities.
About 7.6 billion shares changed hands on US exchanges, above the 6.8 billion daily average for the past 20 trading days, according to Thomson Reuters data. Lower rates have been supportive of stocks climbing, keeping keeping borrowing costs down.
Gold prices edged down on Thursday, after rising more than 1.5 percent in the prior session, as investors targeted riskier assets such as equities following the Federal Reserve’s decision to keep USA interest rates unchanged.
Fed Chair Janet Yellen had said on Wednesday that United States growth was looking stronger and rate increases would be needed to keep the economy from overheating and fuelling high inflation.
Federal Reserve Bank of Boston President Eric Rosengren said the USA central bank’s failure to get back to a strategy of gradual rate increases may threaten the ongoing US economic recovery. The major mover against the dollar, however, was the Norwegian crown, which rose more than 2 percent after Norway’s central bank left its main interest rate unchanged and suggested further rate cuts may not be needed because of a pickup in the economy. Brent crude, used to price global oils, rose 33 cents to $47.16 in London.
ENERGIZED: Energy companies rose, following oil prices.
Other commodities were also rising, which helped out materials stocks.
S&P 500 e-minis () were down 3.75 points, or 0.17 percent, with 97,617 contracts traded. Freeport-McMoRan, the mining giant, jumped 51 cents, or 4.8 percent, to $11.05.
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CURRENCY: The dollar edged up to 100.41 yen from Wednesday’s 100.30.
