It's a testament to how well they messaged, that you deliver a 50 basis point hike and there is not much as a blink in the market. Simona Mocuta, chief economist at State Street Global Advisors in Boston, told Reuters on Wednesday. I would say that I found it slightly less hawkish than I thought it would be. The Dow Jones exploded 930.37 points or 2.81 percent higher to 34,061. The Standard and Poor's 500 jumped by 124.69 points or 2.99 percent to 4,300. The Nasdaq Composite was the best in percentage terms, rallying 401.10 points or 3.19 percent to 12,964. The U.S. dollar was sold off sharply despite the official interest rate increase. The euro went up to 1.0607. The British pound went up to 1.2623. The Swiss franc was strengthened to 0.9731.
The Canadian dollar rose by a cent to 1.2743. The Australian dollar was sharply higher at 0.7254. The Paris-based CAC 40 shed 1.24 percent over the course of the day. In Germany, the Dax was off 0.49 percent. The FTSE 100 in London fell by 0.90 percent.
Markets in Japan and China were closed due to public holidays.
The Australian All Ordinaries gave up early gains to close down 22.84 points or 0.30 percent at 7,564. In New Zealand, the S&P NZX 50 declined by 0.71 of a point or 0.01 percent to 11,675. South Korea's Kospi Composite fell 2.89 points or 0.11 percent to 2,677. In Hong Kong, the Hang Seng fell 232.37 points, or 1.10 percent, to 20,859.