All three of the major stock market indices (^DJI, ^IXIC, ^GSPC) secure record highs following the Federal Reserve's decision to pause interest rates in March. Yahoo Finance's Julie Hyman highlights the market action and sector leaders following Wednesday's closing bell.
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Editor's note: This article was written by Luke Carberry Mogan.
Video Transcript
JULIE HYMAN: A rally that really took hold after we heard from Jay Powell, after we did not see any significant change to the expectations for the Fed. The dot plot still showing three rate cuts this year. And in fact, the Fed raising its forecast for GDP, even as it also raised the forecast for inflation expectations as judged by the dot plot or the summary of economic projections, as it's technically called.
So it looks like the Dow closing at a record in today's session, with that 400-point gain on the day. The S&P 500, up 9/10 of 1%, I believe also trading-- closing at a record on the day, as is true of the NASDAQ as well, up 1.25%.
And as we saw stocks go up, we saw yields go down here today. Not a big move, however, in the wake of the Fed. And perhaps that was something else that was somewhat reassuring to investors.
Now, taking a look at some of the other movers and under the hood in today's session here. Leading the gains, we actually had consumer discretionary. This, to me, is especially interesting, given the fact that we had Kering, the owner of Gucci, issue a warning today that sent that stock sharply down. But consumer discretionary broadly doing well today; up 1.5% here in the US.
Financials gaining communication, services, industrials. Everything up except for energy and health care. And energy has been a strong performer as of late. So this is a bit of a shift from that.
And then taking a look at the NASDAQ 100, some of the big movers here, with no gains in yields, I guess. You could see the strength in technology in particular. So all of the-- I know we're not calling them that anymore-- but the Magnificent Seven still up today, Josh.
