U.S. stocks rise after Fed hikes rates

NEW YORK, Dec. 14 (Xinhua) -- U.S. stocks traded higher around midday Thursday as investors continued to digest the Federal Reserve's decision to raise interest rates for the third time in 2017.

By noon, the Dow Jones Industrial Average added 38.26 points, or 0.16 percent, to 24,623.69. The S&P 500 inched up 1.72 points, or 0.06 percent, to 2,664.57. The Nasdaq Composite Index increased 14.44 points, or 0.21 percent, to 6,890.24.

After the conclusion of its two-day policy meeting, the Fed announced Wednesday afternoon that in view of realized and expected labor market conditions and inflation, the central bank decided to raise the target range for the federal funds rate to 1.25 to 1.50 percent.

"This change highlights that the (Federal Open Market) Committee expects the labor market to remain strong, with sustained job creation, ample opportunities for workers and rising wages," Fed Chair Janet Yellen said on Wednesday at her last press conference before her four-year term ends early next year.

The central bank officials still envisioned three more rate hikes in 2018, unchanged from their forecast in September, according to the latest quarterly projections released on Wednesday.

The central bank also raised its GDP estimate from 2.1 percent in September to 2.5 percent.

U.S. economic data came out positive. Advance estimates of U.S. retail and food services sales for November 2017 were 492.7 billion U.S. dollars, an increase of 0.8 percent from the previous month and well above market consensus of 0.3 percent, the Commerce Department reported Thursday.

Meanwhile, in the week ending Dec. 9, the advance figure for seasonally adjusted initial claims was 225,000, a decrease of 11,000 from the previous week's unrevised level of 236,000, the U.S. Labor Department said Thursday. Enditem