Stocks Edge Higher as Wall Street Waits for Fed Speech
NEW YORK—Stocks ticked higher Wednesday as Wall Street waits for a highly anticipated speech about interest rates at the end of the week.
The S&P 500 edged up 12.04 points, or 0.3 percent, to 4,140.77, as traders overall again held off on making big moves. The Dow Jones Industrial Average added 59.64, or 0.2 percent, to 32,969.23, and the Nasdaq composite rose 50.23, or 0.4 percent, to 12,431.53.
It’s the second straight day of modest moves for the market, but they follow some severe swings up and down over the prior weeks.
Stocks drove higher through the summer on hopes that inflation was near its peak and that the Federal Reserve may hike interest rates less aggressively than earlier feared. But recent comments by Fed officials have cooled such expectations, sending Wall Street on Monday to its worst day in months. Discouraging reports on the economy have meanwhile highlighted the risk of a recession….