Investing.com – U.S. stocks closed higher on Wednesday, buoyed by testimony from Janet Yellen pointing to a slower rate hike cycle than previously anticipated.
The Fed "continues to expect that the evolution of the economy will warrant gradual increases in the federal funds rate over time," Yellen said in her prepared testimony.
Yellen noted, however, that the federal funds rate "would not have to rise all that much further" to reach a neutral level.
The somewhat dovish statement from Yellen, pointed to a slowdown in the pace of future rate hikes, spurring a broad-based rally in equity markets, as all three main U.S. indexes ended positive.
"It seems like [Yellen's] dialing back a little bit of the hawkish sentiment from last time," said Karyn Cavanaugh, senior market strategist at Voya Financial. "She's back to looking at inflation a little bit more.
Meanwhile, energy eke out a gain, as better than expected weekly inventory data, pushed crude futures higher to settle at $45.54, up 1%.
In corporate news, Amazon.com Inc (NASDAQ:AMZN) said Wednesday its third annual Prime Day sales event was its” biggest day ever,” as sales grew more than 60% compared to Prime Day in 2016.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed higher at 21,532.14. The S&P 500 closed 0.73% lower while the Nasdaq Composite closed at 6261.17, up 1.1%.
‘Bulls and Bears’ on Wall Street
The top Dow gainers for the session: E I du Pont de Nemours & Co (NYSE:DD) up 2.7%, Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) up 1.7% and Home Depot Inc (NYSE:HD) up 1.3%
JPMorgan Chase & Co (NYSE:JPM) down 0.3%, was the worst Dow performer of the session.