Wall Street soars to fresh record highs

US stock indices rose on Thursday to fresh record highs as markets assess latest economic data and monetary policies.

The Federal Reserve maintained interest rates at below 5.5% yesterday for the fifth meeting in a row.

Fed officials now expect three interest rate cuts in 2024, almost confirming a June interest rate cut. 

Fed Chair Jerome Powell said the FOMC members are committed to bringing inflation to the 2% target, noting that inflation while slowing is still above the target. 

He added that US inflation remains high and the Fed is paying attention to it, and that higher inflation than expected in February didn’t change the Fed’s outlook. 

Earlier US data showed unemployment claims fell by two thousand to 210 thousand in the week ending March 16. 

The US current account deficit tumbled by 15.7% in 2023, as commodity and services exports rose by $228 to $4.65 trillion, while imports rose by $75.2 billion to $5.47 trillion. 

On trading, Dow Jones rose 0.8%, or 338 points as of 14:59 GMT to 39,850, while S&P 500 rose 0.6%, or 32 points to 5257, as NASDAQ added 0.6%, or 104 points to 16,473.