NEW YORK: US stocks on Wednesday finished higher following a solid kickoff to earnings season from Alcoa and Federal Reserve minutes that signaled low interest rates for a while longer.
At the closing bell, the Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 79.15 points (0.47 percent) to 16,985.77.
The broad-based S&P 500 rose 9.08 (0.46 percent) to 1,972.79, while the tech-rich Nasdaq Composite Index advanced 27.57 (0.63 percent) to 4,419.03.
Wednesday's gains were a partial bounce-back following two straight days of declines.
Alcoa unofficially kicked off second-quarter earnings season after markets closed Tuesday with profits of $138 million, up from a loss of $119 million a year ago. The company benefited from lower costs and said aluminum demand was on track to increase seven percent in 2014.
Alcoa shares shot up 5.7 percent to $15.69. The minutes of the June meeting of the Federal Open Market Committee showed the central bank plans to end its bond-buying program in October.
But the Fed also expects it would not begin raising its near-zero benchmark interest rate for "a considerable time" after the asset purchase program ends, "especially if projected inflation continued to run below the Committee's 2 percent longer-run goal," the minutes said.
"They still are not in any rush to change monetary policy," said Peter Cardillo, chief market economist at Rockwell Global Capital.
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