How major US stock indexes fared Wednesday 2/1/2023

The Associated Press

Wall Street rose to its highest level since the summer following the latest hike to interest rates by the Federal Reserve, which said it’s finally seeing improvements in inflation.

The S&P 500 rallied back from an early 1% loss Wednesday to rise 1%. The Nasdaq jumped and the Dow ended barely higher.

As expected, the Fed raised its benchmark rate by 0.25 percentage points to its highest level since late 2007. It’s the smallest increase in the Fed’s blizzard of rate hikes since March. The Fed’s chair said more increases are likely needed, but he also said the disinflationary process has started.

On Wednesday:

The S&P 500 rose 42.61 points, or 1%, to 4,119.21.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 6.92 points, or less than 0.1%, to 34,092.96.

The Nasdaq composite rose 231.77 points, or 2%, to 11,816.32.

The Russell 2000 index of smaller companies rose 28.87 points, or 1.5%, to 1,960.81.

For the week:

The S&P 500 is up 48.65 points, or 1.2%.

The Dow is up 114.88 points, or 0.3%.

The Nasdaq is up 194.61 points, or 1.7%.

The Russell 2000 is up 49.36 points, or 2.6%.

For the year:

The S&P 500 is up 279.71 points, or 7.3%.

The Dow is up 945.71 points, or 2.9%.

The Nasdaq is up 1,349.84 points, or 12.9%.

The Russell 2000 is up 199.57 points, or 11.3%.