Nasdaq Closes at Record High (25-Year Chart Included)

The Nasdaq closed at record highs yesterday after the Federal Reserve kept interest rates unchanged. The plan is to keep interest rates low for now, but the central bank indicated that it could still tighten monetary policy by year’s end as the labor market continues to improve.

Most traders did not expect the Fed to raise rates, with bets before the meeting of only an 18 % chance of a hike, according to the CME FedWatch website.

“There was just a little bit of doubt in everybody’s mind that maybe they would go ahead and raise rates now and that got cleared up … people felt free to put some money into equities,” said Peter Tuz, president of Chase Investment Counsel in Charlottesville, Virginia.”Couple that with the BOJ lower-for-longer news story from earlier today and the equity market is doing well,” Tuz said. (Market Watch)

The Dow Jones industrial average rose 163.74 points, or 0.9 percent, to 18,293.7, the S&P 500 gained 23.36 points, or 1.09 percent, to 2,163.12 and the Nasdaq Composite added 53.83 points, or 1.03 percent, to 5,295.18.