U.S. stocks opened solidly higher Wednesday, rising for a second day as investors awaited a Federal Reserve decision that’s expected to see a quarter-point rise in the fed-funds rate. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 308 points, or 0.9%, to 33,853, while the S&P 500 was up 1% at 4,304. The Nasdaq Composite advanced 1.4% to 13,133. The Fed will announce its policy decision at 2 p.m. Eastern, followed by Chairman Jerome Powell’s news conference at 2:30 p.m. Investors will be looking for clues to the pace and scope of further Fed rate increases and other efforts to tighten monetary policy. Investors were tracking developments in the Russia-Ukraine war after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky was quoted as saying that talks between Kyiv and Ukraine had become “more realistic.”
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