By Anora Mahmudova, MarketWatch
NEW YORK (MarketWatch) -- U.S. stocks rallied Wednesday to end
with the best gains in more than a month after the minutes of the
latest Federal Open Market Committee meeting revealed a more dovish
stance than investors expected.
The S&P 500 (SPX), ended the day 20.22 points, or 1.1%,
higher at 1,872.18. The Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJI) jumped
181.04 points, or 1.1%, to 16,437.18. The Nasdaq Composite (RIXF)
also jumped 70.91 points, or 1.7%, to 4,183.90.
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Doug Cote, chief investment strategist at ING U.S. Investment
Management, says two things stood out in the Fed minutes, and both
indicate a dovish stand that markets are liking.
"Most participants revised down their GDP projections, which
means they will want to stay accommodative. There were concerns
about low inflation among Fed officials. Current PCE at about 1.5%
is below the Fed's target 2% rate. This would mean rates will stay
low for longer. And even when the rates are raised it will be done
in a slow and measured way, without any shocks," Cote said.
Federal Reserve officials had a secret video conference call in
early March and reached a general consensus that the 6.5%
unemployment rate threshold for the first rate hike was outdated,
the central bank said Wednesday. A summary of the video conference
was included in the minutes of the Fed's March 18-19 meeting. On
the conference call, the central bankers were clearly worried that
changing the forward guidance would impact markets.
Fed officials have publicly encouraged a view that the first
interest-rate increase won't happen until the second half of 2015
at the earliest, and most economists hadn't expected the minutes to
sway from that.
Investors had mixed reactions to earnings from Alcoa Inc.(AA)
and Constellation Brands Inc.(STZ) J.P. Morgan(JPM) and Wells
Fargo(WFC) are scheduled to report on Friday.
Drew Wilson, investment analyst at Fenimore Asset Management,
says markets are focusing on earnings in the absence of macro and
political news.
"Correlation between stocks has fallen and continues to
diminish, which means that markets are reacting to company-specific
news, rather than trading in risk-on/risk-off environment. Markets
are starting to distinguish profitable companies from nonprofitable
ones and reward or punish them for their earnings," Wilson
said.
"This is evident from the shift away from momentum stocks whose
valuations were too high. We see it as a positive for the markets,
they are getting healthier," he added.
Alcoa, Constellation
Among individual companies, Alcoa shares rose 3.8% after the
aluminum producer's adjusted earnings per share topped estimates,
though revenue came in just under expectations. The company also
said it still expected aluminum demand to rise around 7% this
year.
In other earning news, Constant Contact Inc. (CTCT) jumped 29%
after the online marketing company posted results late Tuesday.
Constellation Brands Inc. (STZ) initially rose after posting
fiscal fourth-quarter earnings above consensus estimates, but
reversed gains to close down 1%.
Facebook, Inc. (FB) shares rose 7.3%, the best one-day gain
since Jan 30, after a few analysts recommended to buy the stock.
J.P. Morgan analyst Doug Anmuth said he social network is "still
early in monetizing Facebook's base of 1.2 billion users
globally."
Susquehanna analyst Brian Nowak recommended buying the stock,
saying, "Facebook's first quarter advertising revenue should
surpass expectations and the company's overall first-quarter
results should beat the consensus outlook by a healthy margin."
Intuitive Surgical Inc. (ISRG) tumbled 6.9% after the surgical
robot maker warned on revenue.
In other markets, gold (GCK4) and crude oil (CLK4) inched higher
after the Fed minutes. Europe stocks and most of Asia, with the
exception of the Nikkei 225 index rose on Wednesday. The Tokyo
benchmark fell 2.1% as the yen (USDJPY) rallied overnight against
the dollar and as Toyota Motor Inc. (TM) fell more than 3% on
reports the auto maker recalled 6.4 million vehicles
world-wide.
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