Stocks gain after Fed’s vote on interest rates

An index that tracks the services economy, where most Americans work, fell to its lowest level since 2010.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average climbed 106 points, or 0.6%, to 18399 and the S&P 500 advanced 0.7%.

Sector bellwether Vanke slumped 4.5 per cent, giving back much of Thursday’s gains.

Energy shares were also in demand after oil prices also rose on a weaker United States dollar, extending gains from the previous session when a surprise third consecutive weekly USA crude inventory draw tightened supply. In other energy commodities, heating oil rose 2.5 cents to $1.45 a gallon, wholesale gasoline rose less than 1 cent to $1.40 a gallon and natural gas fell 7 cents to $2.99 per 1,000 cubic feet.

As of 1553 BST the yield on the benchmark 10-year US Treasury note was higher by one basis point to 1.62%.

In Japan, the Nikkei Stock Average 225 fell 0.10%, South Korea’s Kospi Index added 0.15% and Australia’s ASX All Ordinaries Index gained 0.51%.

S&P 500 e-minis () were down 3.75 points, or 0.17 percent, with 97,617 contracts traded. Eastern. The Standard & Poor’s 500 index rose 11 points, or 0.5 percent, to 2,174 and the Nasdaq composite rose 34 points, or 0.7 percent, to 5,329.

The central bank raised interest rates for the first time in almost a decade last December but weak economic data and global uncertainty have prevented it from raising the rates further. For more on this, BNN is joined by Chris Damas, President at The BCMI Report.

USA crude rose 2.29 percent after data showed a bigger-than-expected draw in inventories.

Elsewhere, copper also ticked down after having rallied to a six-week high despite worries about slow demand growth, supported by the Fed’s policy.

Brent crude futures rose 1.9 per cent to $47.73 a barrel, while USA oil futures jumped 2.5 per cent to $46.46. Chevron rose about 1 percent.

Platinum edged up 0.3 percent at $1,054.20.

The Federal Reserve held Wall Street rapt throughout a roller coaster of a week. The FTSE 100 was up over 1%, and the CAC 40 climbed 2.41%.

The dollar gained 0.6% against the yen to ¥ 100.880, following a steep decline in the previous session.

The Fed kept interest rates unchanged on Wednesday, which was largely expected, but hinted at a possible rate hike before year’s end.

The US Fed did signal it could hike rates by year-end as the labour market improved further, but cut the number of rate increases expected in 2017 and 2018. While the pace of projected interest rate increases as shown on June’s dot plot was already seen to be gradual, September’s forward projections were, on balance, substantially even more gradual over all time frames.

Fed-fund futures, used by investors to bet on central-bank policy, suggest a 57% chance of a rate increase by the Fed’s December meeting, down slightly from 58% before Wednesday’s announcement, according to CME Group.CME -0.32 % .

“Probabilities (for a rate hike) are now very firmly in December”, said Karl Schamotta, director of FX strategy at Cambrdige Global Payments in Toronto. Now it is down to just three.