U.S. Stocks Firmly Up In Positive Territory On Dovish Comments From Fed Officials

(RTTNews) - U.S. stocks are firmly placed in positive territory around mid afternoon on Tuesday, gaining in strength after a somewhat cautious and subdued start.

Despite concerns about the ongoing war in the Middle East, the mood in the market remains fairly positive as dovish comments from some Federal Reserve officials lowered expectations for further interest rate hikes, and pushed down bond yields.

The major averages are all up with decent gains. The Dow is up 179.41 points or 0.53 percent at 33,784.06. The S&P 500 is gaining 29.46 points or 0.68 percent at 4365.12, while the Nasdaq is up 102.65 points or 0.76 percent at 13,586.89.

Dollar Tree surged more than 4 percent. Bank of America, Boeing, Airbnb, Coca-Cola, PepsiCo, Carnival, Moderna and Citigroup gained 2 to 4 percent.

American Express, Alaska Air, United Airlines Holdings, Tesla, Mastercard, Walmart, Amazon, Meta Platforms and M&G are also up with solid gains.

In economic news, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) downgraded the global growth forecast for next year, saying the projections are weakest in decades, while the likelihood of a soft-landing has increased with growing divergences amid modestly easing inflationary pressures.

Global growth was forecast at 3.0 percent this year, the IMF said in its October World Economic Outlook report released on Tuesday at Marrakech, Morocco, where the lender is holding its annual meeting.

That was the same as the projection in the July update to the WEO, while higher than the April forecast of 2.8 percent.

The growth outlook for 2024 was lowered to 2.9 percent from 3.0 percent seen in both April and July. The projections remain below the historical average of 3.8 percent for 2000-2019, the lender said.

Growth forecasts for the U.S. economy for this year and next were raised to 2.1 percent and 1.5 percent, respectively.

Fed Vice Chair Philip Jefferson said on Monday that the central bank is "in a position to proceed carefully in assessing the extent of any additional policy firming that may be necessary."

"Higher term premiums result in higher term interest rates for the same setting of the fed funds rate, all else equal. Thus, if term premiums rise, they could do some of the work of cooling the economy for us, leaving less need for additional monetary policy tightening," Dallas Fed President Lorie Logan said.

Investors now look ahead to the release of U.S. CPI data and minutes of the Fed's September monetary policy meeting this week for further direction.