Stocks closed higher Wednesday after a choppy session as investors looked past Federal Reserve meeting minutes that showed the central bank will remain aggressive in its policy to tame high inflation.
The November Job Openings and Labor Turnover report, or JOLTS, came in slightly better than anticipated, signaling continued labor market strength amid the central bank's rate hikes to tame inflation. The ISM manufacturing index, on the flip side, showed a contraction in the sector after 30 months of expansion, signaling that interest rate increases may be working to slow the economy.
"This is very much wait and see mode," said Art Hogan, chief market strategist at B. Riley Financial. "After wrapping up a year that was pretty terrible on all fronts, there's always going to be trepidation by investors to put money to work and we're seeing that in real time at least in the first two trading days."Stocks rose Wednesday even after the Federal Reserve reiterated that it plans to raise interest rates and keep them high in an attempt to tame inflation.
One passage also noted that a smaller rate increase of half a percentage point at the meeting, following three straight three-quarter point moves, "was not an indication of any weakening of the Committee's resolve to achieve its price-stability goal or a judgment that inflation was already on a persistent downward path."
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