Political | Process

The Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 520 points at the high of the day.

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• The gains follow a Tuesday sell-off on Wall Street over fears about the new omicron Covid variant and the Federal Reserve mulling a quicker-than-planned exit from its easy monetary policy.

• The U.S. 10-year Treasury rose as much as 9 basis points to around 1.5% earlier in the session but has since retreated to 1.45%.

• Some energy shares posted gains, with Baker Hughes each rising 2% as West Texas Intermediate prices climbed about 4% to nearly $69 a barrel. Financial names also rose. JPMorgan and Wells Fargo gained 2% apiece and Goldman Sachs added 1.5%.

• Retail and apparel stocks were also in the green, Ralph Lauren adding more than 2% and PVH gaining nearly 2%. Home Depot and Lowe’s were each up 2%.

• The moves came a day after the Dow lost more than 650 points, the S&P 500 shed 1.9% and the tech-focused Nasdaq Composite dipped 1.6%. The small-cap benchmark Russell 2000 tumbled 1.9% as cyclical names dragged on the markets.

• Fed Chairman Jerome Powell jolted markets on Tuesday after he said the central bank is expected to discuss speeding up the taper of its minimum $120 billion a month bond-buying program.

• Despite the potential disruption of omicron, the Fed chief said he thinks reducing the pace of monthly bond buys can move quicker than the $15 billion-a-month schedule announced earlier this month.

• “I think that the taper need not be a disruptive event in markets. I don’t expect that it will be. It hasn’t been so far. We’ve telegraphed it,” Powell said during Congressional testimony on Wednesday.

SOURCE: CNBC