S&P 500 Tops 4,700 as Dovish Fed Signs Sink Yields: Markets Wrap
- Fed holds rates steady again and pivots toward cuts in 2024
- The median projection is for three rate cuts next year
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Wall Street’s great cross-asset rally got an extra dose of encouragement as dovish Federal Reserve signals pushed the S&P 500 closer to its all-time high while sinking bond yields.
Traders cheered a tweak to the Fed’s “dot plot,” with officials expecting to lower rates by 75 basis points next year — a sharper pace of cuts than indicated in September. The S&P 500 topped 4,700, the Dow Jones Industrial Average hit a record and the Nasdaq 100 extended this year’s surge to over 50%. Two-year yields sank 30 basis points — the most since March — to around 4.4%. The dollar fell to a four-month low. Swap contracts show bets on 140 basis points of easing in the next 12 months.