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U.S. stocks extend gains after Fed decision

Xinhua, September 23, 2016 Adjust font size:

U.S. stocks kept rising Thursday, with the Nasdaq Composite Index refreshing its intraday and closing records, as Wall Street continued to cheer over the Federal Reserve's decision to leave its interest rates unchanged.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average added 98.76 points, or 0.54 percent, to 18,392.46. The S&P 500 increased 14.06 points, or 0.65 percent, to 2,177.18. The Nasdaq Composite Index climbed 44.34 points, or 0.84 percent, to 5,339.52.

"The Committee judges that the case for an increase in the federal funds rate has strengthened but decided, for the time being, to wait for further evidence of continued progress toward its objectives," the Fed said in a statement released Wednesday afternoon.

The Fed's updated projections showed that policymakers expected the federal funds rate to rise to around 0.625 percent at the end of 2016, implying one rate hike this year, down from two estimated in June.

"The Fed did not raise rates yesterday, but they indicated their eagerness to restart the process," said Chris Low, chief economist at FTN Financial, in a note.

The Fed will hold its next two policy meetings on Nov. 1-2 and Dec. 13-14.

On the economic front, in the week ending on Sept. 17, the advance figure for seasonally adjusted initial claims was 252,000, a decrease of 8,000 from the previous week's unrevised level of 260,000, the U.S. Labor Department reported Thursday.

The four-week moving average was 258,500, a decrease of 2,250 from the previous week's unrevised average of 260,750.

Meanwhile, U.S. total existing-home sales declined 0.9 percent to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 5.33 million in August from a downwardly revised 5.38 million in July, according to the National Association of Realtors Thursday. Endit