US stocks gained momentum in the last hour of trading after the Federal Reserve announced it would keep interest rates unchanged and accelerate the process of curbing its bond purchases to $ 30 billion a month.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 382 points, or 1%, while the S&P 500 and Nasdaq Composite rose 1.6% and 2%, respectively.

tickersafetyLastchangeChange%
Me: DJIDOW JONES AVERAGE VALUES35927.43+383.25+ 1.08%
SP500S&P 5004709.85+75.76+1.63%
Me: COMPNASDAQ COMPOSITE INDEX15565.582968+327.94+ 2.15%

US Federal Reserve chairman Jerome Powell admitted that inflation has risen much faster than policymakers expected, and said the labor market will take longer than expected to recover as people choose to not to go into employment.

He also noted that cryptocurrencies are not currently a huge risk to the financial system. Bitcoin rose to the $ 49,000 mark.

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Oil rose 0.20% to close at $ 70.87 a barrel.

tickersafetyLastchangeChange%
USEUNITED STATES OIL FUND LP51.62+0.70+ 1.37%

Vaccine manufacturers were the focus of stocks after Dr. Anthony Fauci said during a press conference that COVID-19 vaccines do not need to be modified to protect against the Omicron variant.

tickersafetyLastchangeChange%
MRNAMODERNA INC.283.28+6.12+ 2.21%
PFEPFIZER INC.58.80+3.26+ 5.87%
BNTXBIONTECH SE287.05+10.28+ 3.71%
JNJJOHNSON & JOHNSON171.14+0.85+ 0.50%

Apple remains in focus as its stocks are on the verge of propelling the company above $ 3 trillion.

tickersafetyLastchangeChange%
AAPLAPPLE INC.179.30+4.97+ 2.85%

Home improvement retailer Lowe’s came under pressure after announcing that full-year sales will be $ 94 billion to $ 97 billion, with the lower range falling below analyst forecasts.

tickersafetyLastchangeChange%
LOWLOWES COS. INC.257.54+5.08+ 2.01%
HDTHE HOME DEPOT INC.407.81+5.61+1.39%

Retail sales rose 0.3%, below the 0.8% forecast by economists and well below the unexpectedly sharp increase in October of 1.7%. Excluding the automotive component, expenditure also only rose by 0.3% compared to 1.7% in the previous month. The pullback suggests that inflation could hit the consumer harder than expected.

tickersafetyLastchangeChange%
WMTWALMART INC.145.77+0.83+ 0.57%
TGTTARGET BODY.236.65+1.37+ 0.58%
KSSKOHLS CORP.49.18-0.32-0.65%

The Empire State Manufacturing Survey did better than expected with a score of 31.9, a sign that business conditions are improving rather than deteriorating.

MANUFACTURER PRICES INCREASED BY 9.6% IN NOVEMBER, BIGGEST GAIN OF RECORDS

And imported goods prices rose 0.7% m / m, after a slightly larger than expected 1.2% increase in October. Export prices rose 1% in November and below 1.5% of the previous month.

tickersafetyLastchangeChange%
LENLENNAR CORP.113.09+1.94+1.75%
TOLLTOLL BROTHERS INC.71.14+0.98+1.40%
goatDR. HORTON INC.107.37+2.63+ 2.51%

The National Association of Homebuilders Sentiment Index for December rose slightly to 84, its highest level since February.

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Ken Martin of FOX Business and The Associated Press contributed to this report.