December 18, 2013: Markets opened slightly higher on Wednesday, but didn’t move much until the afternoon FOMC announcement came out. Tapering has begun, and interest rates will remain at their near-zero level. The DJIA closed up 1.84%, the S&P 500 closed up 1.66%, and the Nasdaq Composite closed up 1.15%. All but one of the Dow 30 stocks posted a solid gain following the FOMC announcement.

Among heavily traded DJIA stocks, today’s biggest gainer was Exxon Mobil Corp. (NYSE: XOM which opened this morning up 0.7% on the strength of an expected drawdown on U.S. oil stockpiles leading to higher prices. The Fed’s announcement of continuing low interest rate is good news for companies that have to borrow as much money as Exxon does. Shares traded about 15% higher than their daily average of around 13 million and closed at $99.67, up 3.02%, in a 52-week range of $84.70 to $99.72.

3M Company (NYSE: MMM) picked up where it left off yesterday, opening fractionally higher then jumping more than $3 a share after the FO3M.Trading was more than double the average daily volume of around 2.7 million. The stock closed up 3.35% at a new 52-week high of $135.79. The 52-week low is $91.40.

Another sector that did well after the Fed announcement is the banking & financial group. JPMorgan Chase & Co. (NYSE: JPM) led the Dow financials on their upward trajectory, jumping more than $2 a share this afternoon. Shares opened about 0.2% higher this morning. Trading was a about 10% above the average daily volume of around 20 million shares. The stock closed up 2.67% at $57.21 in a 52-week range of $42.90 to $58.14.

Goldman Sachs Group Inc. (NYSE: GS) did almost as well as JPMorgan, and for all the same reasons. The stock opened up about 0.3% and closed up 2.55% at $174.84 in a 52-week range of $124.57 to $174.61. Trading was slightly higher than the average daily volume of 3.4 million shares.

Another big Dow 30 gainer today, The Walt Disney Co. (NYSE: DIS), opened about 0.4% higher this morning and volume was about 15% off the daily average of around 7 million. The company’s streaming video joint venture, Hulu, said today that fiscal year revenue would top $1 billion, nearly a 50% jump over last year’s total of $695 million. Disney’s stock closed up 2.08% at $72.13 in a 52-week range of $48.80 to $72.20.

The Boeing Co. (NYSE: BA) announced its succession plan this morning and the stock drifted lower throughout the day. Shares got a nice bump from the FOMC announcement but the boost wasn’t enough. Shares closed down 0.26% at $135.52 in a 52-week range of $72.68 to $142.00.

Boeing was the only Dow 30 stock to close lower today.

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