Stocks end higher after Fed keeps interest rates unchanged

Wall Street looked to follow global markets higher after Chinese equities rallied Wednesday, two days after massive losses not seen since 2007. Facebook shares tumbled 2.5%.

Bond prices fell while the yield on the 10-year Treasury note rose to 2.29%.

Biotech company Gilead Sciences advanced 2.3 per cent after reporting that second-quarter earnings rose 22.9 per cent to US$4.5 billion due in part to large gains in antiviral product sales.

“Is going from zero to a quarter percentage point going to kill the economy?” The Dow Jones Industrial Average lost 16.83 points, or 0.1%, to 17,734.56. The company also raised its 2015 forecasts. S&P 500 futures rose 5 points, or 0.24% to 2092, while Nasdaq 100 futures added 13 points, or 0.30% to 4569. Visit MarketWatch.com for more information on this news.

All eyes on the Fed Investors will watch closely the two day Federal Reserve meeting for hints of when an interest rate hike take place.

The US central bank had been expected to keep interest rates unchanged, but some experts thought it might elaborate on its plans for monetary policy. Odds are still on the first increase coming after the committee’s September meeting, however, some believe it could be delayed until December, or even the first part of 2016.

With more than half of second-quarter results now reported, analysts expect overall earnings of S&P 500 companies to edge up 0.8 per cent and revenue to decline 3.9 per cent, according to Thomson Reuters data.

Dow member Microsoft jumped 2.1 per cent following the launch of Windows 10, which the tech giant hopes will boost its presence on smartphones and other mobile technology.

The latest reading on the economy, while signaling a nice bounce back from the upwardly revised first-quarter growth of 0.6% from a previous contraction of 0.2%, was below the 2.5% estimate economists surveyed by Bloomberg expected. Heating oil fell 0.6 cent to close at $1.598 a gallon. The gauge, know as the VIX, rose 15% last week, its fifth gain in six weeks.