NEW YORK (AP) – Wall Street hit another record high as traders await a decision on the Federal Reserve's interest rate policy. The S&P 500 shook off early losses to close 0.6% higher on Tuesday, surpassing its all-time high set last week. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 0.8% and the Nasdaq Composite rose 0.4%, both closing just below recent highs. Treasury yields fell in the bond market ahead of the Federal Reserve's forecast for year-end interest rates on Wednesday. In a historic move, Japan's central bank raised its benchmark interest rate to at least zero.
This is the latest news. Previous articles from the Associated Press are below.
NEW YORK (AP) — U.S. stocks are rising Tuesday as Wall Street awaits a decision on the Federal Reserve's interest rate policy.
The S&P 500 rose 0.4% in late trading. With less than an hour left in trading, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 237 points, or 0.6%, and the Nasdaq Composite Index was up 0.2%.
All three indexes erased losses from earlier in the day.
International Paper jumped 11.1%, the biggest gainer in the S&P 500 index, after appointing investment firm KKR executive Andrew Silvernail as its new CEO.
Shares in U.S.-traded Unilever rose 2.7% after the company announced it would separate its ice cream business from Ben & Jerry's and cut 7,500 jobs.
NVIDIA, which has become one of the most influential stocks on the market, experienced wild price movements throughout the day. Nvidia rose 0.6% after an early drop of nearly 4% after announcing new products at a developer conference. Analysts called them strong and said they would keep Nvidia ahead of its competitors. The company's stock price has already more than tripled compared to last year.
Wall Street's loser was Super Micro Computer, whose stock price soared from less than $100 to more than $1,000 in one year. The company, which sells servers and storage systems used for AI and other computing, fell 10.7% after announcing it was considering selling 2 million shares of its stock.
Elsewhere on Wall Street, the focus was on the Federal Reserve.
The Fed has begun its latest meeting on interest rates and is expected to announce a decision on Wednesday. There are widespread expectations that key interest rates will be left unchanged at the highest level in 20 years. The bank is expected to signal that it expects to cut interest rates three times this year, as it hinted several months ago.
U.S. stock indexes have recently hit new highs, in part due to hopes that such rate cuts will ease pressure on the economy and financial system. But recent reports on inflation have been consistently worse than expected. That could force the Fed to say it will cut rates less this year, and traders have already given up early hopes that the first rate cut of the year will come on Wednesday.
Bank of America strategists expect Fed officials to stick to their outlook, which shows the median member expects three rate cuts in 2024. But it's a close call, and strategists led by Mark Kavanagh say “risks are skewed toward fewer signals to cut rates.”
Ahead of the announcement, U.S. bond yields fell in the bond market. The yield on the 10-year U.S. Treasury note fell to 4.29% from 4.33% late Monday.
High yields and interest rates can cause stock prices to fall broadly, but they can also suck dollars and enthusiasm out of excited parts of the market.
Bitcoin prices have generally declined since peaking above $73,000 last week. They are notorious for exposing investors to wild price fluctuations. It fell further on Tuesday, falling below $64,900.
In overseas stock markets, Japan's Nikkei Stock Average rose 0.7% after the Bank of Japan raised its base interest rate for the first time in 17 years. In a historic move, the bank made changes that included returning the policy rate to a range of zero to 0.1%, ending a long experiment with below-zero interest rates aimed at boosting the economy and inflation.
Analysts say interest rate policy remains accommodative, with the era-defining move widely expected.
Embattled real estate developer China Evergrande Group has announced that China's market watchdog has fined it 4.2 billion yuan ($333.4 million) for alleged violations including revenue misrepresentation. As a result, stock prices fell by 1.2% in Hong Kong and 0.7% in Shanghai.
Elsewhere in Asia and Europe, stocks were mixed.
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AP Business Writers Matt Ott and Elaine Kurtenbach contributed.
