Fed Chair Powell unleashes price fireworks on Wall Street

new York It was the confirmation that many investors had hoped for: The US Federal Reserve (Fed) wants to slow down the pace of interest rate hikes, announced Fed Chairman Jerome Powell on Wednesday in a speech to the think tank Brookings. That could be appropriate as early as the upcoming mid-December meeting, Powell said.

This gave the stock markets a significant tailwind in the late hours of trading in New York. The leading index Dow Jones closed 2.18 percent up at 34,590. The broad S&P 500 gained a good three percent to 4080 points. The tech-heavy Nasdaq benefited particularly from Powell’s announcement. It closed more than 4.5 percent up.