Dow jumps 900 points as Fed chair downplays higher rate hikes

ANKARA

The Dow Jones rallied on Wednesday to jump over 900 points as the Federal Reserve chair ruled out higher interest rate increases in coming months.

The blue-chip index soared 932 points, or 2.81%, to close at 34,061. The S&P 500 gained 124 points, or 2.99%, to end the day at 4,300.

The tech-heavy Nasdaq increased 401 points, or 3.19%, to finish at 12,964.

Fed Chair Jerome Powell signaled earlier that it is unlikely the central bank would make larger interest rates than 50 basis points in the coming months.

Powell, however, noted that there is a broad sense among the Fed officials that additional 50 basis points of interest rate increases should be on the table for the next couple of meetings.

The central bank earlier increased its benchmark interest rate by 50 basis points, marking its steepest rate hike since 2000.

As investors have ruled out a 75 basis point rate hike from the Fed with Powell's comments, the VIX volatility index, known as the fear index, plummeted 13.1% to 25.42.

The dollar index decreased 0.87% to 102.57. The yield on 10-year US Treasury notes lost 1.33% to 2.919%.

Precious metals were on the rise, with gold adding 0.82% to $1,883 and silver gaining 2% to $23.03.

Crude oil prices increased around 5% amid the EU preparing to impose ban on Russian crude oil imports.

Global oil benchmark Brent crude was trading at $110.14, up 4.9%, while US benchmark West Texas Intermediate (WTI) was at $107.75 – a 5.2% gain.