U.S. stock indices rose on Wednesday ahead of an expected Federal Reserve interest rate hike, with investors awaiting clues on the length and depth of monetary policy tightening to rein in expectations. increasing price pressures.
* As of 1410 GMT, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 185.15 points, or 0.61%, at 30,892.67; the S&P 500 index was up 20.22 points, or 0.52%, at 3,876.21; and the Nasdaq Composite rose 28.95 points, or 0.26%, to 11,454.45, buoyed by more than 0.5% gains in mega-cap stocks such as Apple Inc (NASDAQ: AAPL ) and Microsoft Corp ( NASDAQ: MSFT ).
* Ten of 11 major S&P 500 sectors were up in early trading, led by a 1.1% jump in energy and industrials stocks.
* The Fed is likely to raise its benchmark interest rate by 75 basis points for the third time, to a range of 3%-3.25%, at the end of its two-day meeting, which will be followed by a press conference of its president, Jerome Powell.
* “What investors want to see is whether the Fed is going to continue to be very aggressive in its messaging, whether it is really committed to controlling inflation at the risk of driving the economy into a recession,” said Brandon Pizzurro, of GuideStone Capital Management.
* The benchmark S&P 500 is near two-month lows below 3,900 points, a level seen by analysts as strong technical support for the index.
* The S&P 500 value index, which includes cyclical and economy-linked stocks such as banks, energy, industrials and materials, is down 11.4% so far this year, compared to a 25.2% plunge from its tech-dominated growth peer.
* US defense firms Northrop Grumman Corp (NYSE: ), Raytheon (NYSE: RTN ) Technologies Corp and Lockheed Martin Corp (NYSE: LMT ) rose between 2.6% and 3.0%, 1% after Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered the first mobilization in his country since World War II.
