Midnight Trader | Jun 18, 2014 04:13PM ET
Stocks turned broadly higher Wednesday after the Federal Reserve said the U.S. economy continues to mend but also offered no indication it intends to let off the gas anytime soon. All 10 sectors in the S&P 500 finished in the black, with the market gauge again advancing to a record close paced by gains for shares of utility and materials and mining companies. Consumer non-cyclicals also enjoyed strong support.
Stimulus Eased
As expected, the Fed on Wednesday trimmed its bond-buying stimulus program by another $10 billion to $35 billion per month. But voting members on the Federal Open Markets Committee also thweaked their targets in the short-term fed funds rate, with five of the panel's member trimming their targets by 25 basis points from their prior view, with seven members now looking for a more dovish 3.75% and only five members wanting a rate of 4% or more.
While struggling to overcome lethargy ahead of this afternoon's Fed anouncements, stock got earlier support from S&P 500 components Adobe Systems (NASDAQ:ADBE) and FedEx Corporation (NYSE:FDX) reporting better-than-expected earnings and revenue in their latest quarters.
Stock Debuts
Wednesday's trading also included a pair of well-received initial public stock offerings. In one deal, ZS Pharma Inc (ZSPH) jumped over 50% in its debut after the drugmaker priced its IPO at $18 a share, topping its expected $15 to $17 price range.
Also today, Viper Energy Partners (VNOM) finished with almost a 30% advance after pricing its IPO of 5 million shares at $26 each, well above the projected range of $19 to $21 a share for the Diamondback Energy (NASDAQ:FANG)) spinoff.
But another first-day offering tumbled Wednesday when Australian drugmaker Parnell Pharmaceuticals (PARN) slashed its offering price by more than 70% to $10 a share from its planned pricing of $17 to $19 a share. It also reduced the number of shares that were sold in the IPO.
Commodities
Crude Oil for July delivery continued its slow decline from multi-month highs, falling 39 cents to settle at $105.97 per barrel while July Natural Gas was down 5 cents at $4.66 per 1 million BTU. August Gold rose 60 cents to finish at $1,272.40 per ounce while July Silver added 4 cents, settling at $19.77 per ounce. July Copper was unchanged at $3.06 per pound.
h2 Here's Where The U.S. Markets Stood At Day's End/h2GLOBAL SENTIMENT
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