How major US stock indexes fared Wednesday, 3/20/2024

Stocks rallied to more records after the Federal Reserve indicated it’s still likely to deliver the cuts to interest rates this year that Wall Street craves.

The S&P 500 rose 0.9% Wednesday. The Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 1%, and the Nasdaq composite jumped 1.3%.

All three indexes hit all-time highs. The fear coming into the day was that the Fed would trim the number of expected rate cuts this year because of some hot inflation data, but it’s still penciling in three. Traders built bets that the first cut will come in June.

On Wednesday:

The S&P 500 rose 46.11 points, or 0.9%, to 5,224.62.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 401.37 points, or 1%, to 39,512.13.

The Nasdaq composite rose 202.62 points, or 1.3%, to 16,369.41.

The Russell 2000 index of smaller companies rose 39.17 points, or 1.9%, to 2,074.88.

For the week:

The S&P 500 is up 107.53 points, or 2.1%.

The Dow is up 797.36 points, or 2.1%.

The Nasdaq is up 396.23 points, or 2.5%.

The Russell 2000 is up 35.56 points, or 1.7%.

For the year:

The S&P 500 is up 454.79 points, or 9.5%.

The Dow is up 1,822.59 points, or 4.8%.

The Nasdaq is up 1,358.06 points, or 9%.

The Russell 2000 is up 47.81 points, or 2.4%.

The Associated Press