U.S. stocks rise as investors assess Fed decision

NEW YORK, March 17 (Xinhua) -- U.S. stocks advanced on Thursday as investors digested the Federal Reserve's latest decision on interest rates.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 417.66 points, or 1.23 percent, to 34,480.76. The S&P 500 added 53.81 points, or 1.23 percent, to 4,411.67. The Nasdaq Composite Index increased 178.23 points, or 1.33 percent, to 13,614.78.

All the 11 primary S&P 500 sectors ended in green, with energy and materials up 3.48 percent and 1.95 percent, respectively, leading the gains.

U.S.-listed Chinese companies traded mostly lower with seven of the top 10 stocks by weight in the S&P U.S. Listed China 50 index ending the day on a downbeat note.

The Fed on Wednesday raised its benchmark interest rate for the first time since 2018 as it seeks to tame the highest U.S. inflation in four decades.

The U.S. central bank decided to raise the target range for the federal funds rate by a quarter percentage point and "anticipates that ongoing increases in the target range will be appropriate," the Fed said in a statement after concluding its two-day policy meeting.

In addition, the Fed expects to begin reducing its holdings of U.S. Treasury securities and agency debt and agency mortgage-backed securities "at a coming meeting."

On the economic front, U.S. initial jobless claims, a rough way to measure layoffs, stood at 214,000 in the week ending March 12, a decrease of 15,000 from the prior week's revised level, the Department of Labor reported on Thursday. Economists polled by The Wall Street Journal had forecast initial jobless claims to total a seasonally adjusted 220,000.