US stocks jump after Fed minutes; Nasdaq +1.9%

Wall Street stocks finished with large gains Wednesday after traders viewed new Federal Reserve meeting minutes as a sign the US central bank will remain dovish on monetary policy. AP

NEW YORK–Wall Street stocks finished with large gains Wednesday after traders viewed new Federal Reserve meeting minutes as a sign the US central bank will remain dovish on monetary policy.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average jumped 274.83 points (1.64 percent) to 16,994.22.

The broad-based S&P 500 gained 33.79 (1.75 percent) to 1,968.89, while the tech-rich Nasdaq Composite Index soared 83.39 (1.90 percent) to 4,468.59.

Minutes from the Fed’s September meeting showed policy-makers cautious about rushing into rate hikes, and worried that the dollar is rising too fast.

There was also clear concern over slow growth in Europe and elsewhere.

Markets had a “major liftoff” after the minutes, said Michael James, managing director of equity trading at Wedbush Securities.

“Traders’ interpretation was that rates are not going to be going up that much or as quickly as maybe people are fearing,” James said.

Financial stocks rose, including Dow members JPMorgan Chase (+1.9 percent) and Goldman Sachs (+1.6 percent), as well as Wells Fargo (+2.1 percent) and Citigroup (+2.5 percent).

Most tech stocks had a good day, including Dow members Intel (+2.4 percent) and Microsoft (+2.8 percent) and eBay (+2.9 percent).

Apple jumped 2.1 percent after announcing an October 16 event that is expected to launch a new line of iPad tablet computers.

Monsanto, the farm technology giant, advanced 1.9 percent as fiscal 2014 profits rose 10.4 percent to $2.7 billion.

Costco Wholesale gained 2.8 percent as fourth-quarter net income of $1.58 per share bested expectations by six cents. Comparable sales rose six percent.

Comcast advanced 2.9 percent after shareholders approved the acquisition of Time Warner Cable. The merger still needs to be approved by the Federal Communications Commission and other regulators.

Shareholders of Time Warner Cable (+3.2 percent) are scheduled to vote on the transaction Thursday.

Bond prices were mixed. The yield on the 10-year US Treasury fell to 2.33 percent from 2.35 percent Tuesday, while the 30-year held steady at 3.06 percent. Bond prices and yields move inversely.