Wall Street surged on Wednesday as Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) results lifted sentiment and investors looked ahead to the Federal Reserve’s press conference later in the day.
The S&P 500 rose 17 points, or 0.67%, as of 9:33 AM ET (14:33 GMT), while the Dow jumped 283 points, or 1.15%, and the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite gained 74 points, or 1.06%.
Apple jumped 4.5% after the company reported an increase in its services business, offsetting a steep decline in iPhone sales due to a slowdown in the Chinese economy. The numbers helped offset worries that trade tensions between the U.S. and China are contributing to a slowdown in the global economy.
Investors are also looking ahead to the Federal Reserve's press conference half an hour after its interest rate decision at 2:00 PM ET (19:00 GMT). No change in official interest rates is expected.
Elsewhere, Boeing (NYSE:BA) rose 4.8% after its earnings results were better than expected, while Facebook (NASDAQ:FB) increased 1.1% ahead of its financial report after the closing bell. McDonald’s (NYSE:MCD) gained 2.6% after posting quarterly profit beat but missed same-store sales in the U.S.
Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) was up 1.5%, while AT&T (NYSE:T) slumped 5.4% after disappointing subscriber numbers in the company’s quarterly report. Juniper Networks (NYSE:JNPR) dipped 8.34% and Discovery decreased 7.7%
In commodities, Gold futures rose 0.7% to $1,309.80 a troy ounce and crude oil increased 1.35% to $54.03 a barrel. The U.S. dollar index, which measures the greenback against a basket of six major currencies, rose 0.14% to 95.648.
