US stocks rise after Fed minutes, economic data

NEW YORK - US stocks climbed on Wednesday as Wall Street pored through the Federal Reserve's latest meeting minutes and a slew of economic data.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 133.40 points, or 0.40 percent, to 33,269.77. The S&P 500 added 28.83 points, or 0.75 percent, to 3,852.97. The Nasdaq Composite Index increased 71.78 points, or 0.69 percent, to 10,458.76.

All the 11 primary S&P 500 sectors ended in green, with real estate and materials up 2.28 percent and 1.74 percent, respectively, leading the rally.

The Fed's December meeting minutes released Wednesday showed that "no participants anticipated that it would be appropriate to begin reducing the federal funds rate target in 2023."

Fed policy makers "generally observed that a restrictive policy stance would need to be maintained until the incoming data provided confidence that inflation was on a sustained downward path to 2 percent, which was likely to take some time," read the minutes.

Last month, the Fed raised interest rates by 50 basis points, after announcing four straight 75 basis point hikes at its previous meetings, in an attempt to bring inflation under control.

On the economic front, the number of available jobs in the United States totaled 10.46 million in November, according to data released Wednesday by the U.S. Department of Labor. The reading was slightly lower than the upwardly revised October total of 10.51 million, but was higher than market consensus.

Elsewhere, the Institute for Supply Management said the December U.S. manufacturing PMI (Purchasing Managers' Index) fell to 48.4 percent from November's rate of 49 percent, marking the lowest since May 2020.