Dow And S&P 500 Reach New Record Closing Highs

(RTTNews) - Stocks moved sharply higher in the latter part of the trading day on Wednesday as traders reacted positively to the Federal Reserve's highly anticipated monetary policy announcement. The strong gains on the day extended the recent upward trend by the markets.

The rally on Wall Street came on the heels of news that the Federal Reserve surprised most economists by refraining from scaling back its asset purchase program.

Most of the major sectors moved notably higher following the announcement from the Fed, reflecting broad based buying interest.

Gold stocks showed a particularly strong move to the upside, driving the NYSE Arca Gold Bugs Index up by 9.6 percent. The strength among gold stocks came as the price of the precious metal spiked higher in electronic trading.

Substantial strength also emerged among housing stocks, as reflected by the 4.3 percent advance by the Philadelphia Housing Sector Index. The gain lifted the index to a three-month closing high.

Commercial real estate stocks also saw considerable strength on the day, resulting in a 3.4 percent gain by the Morgan Stanley REIT Index. With the gain, the index reached its best closing level in well over a month.

Utilities, steel, and chemical stocks also saw significant strength, while health insurance and brokerage stocks were among the few groups that bucked the uptrend.

The major averages pulled back off their best levels of the day going into the close but remained firmly positive. The Dow jumped 147.21 points or 1 percent to 15,676.94, the Nasdaq surged up 37.94 points or 1 percent to 3,783.64 and the S&P 500 soared 20.76 points or 1.2 percent to 1,725.52.

With the gains on the day, the Dow and the S&P 500 set new record closing highs, while the Nasdaq reached its best closing level in thirteen years.