March 18, 2015: Markets opened lower on Wednesday and bided its time below the break-even line until just after 2 p.m. and the FOMC’s announcement that it would no longer wait patiently before beginning to raise interest rates, instead waiting until inflation is on track for the Fed’s 2% target. The current Fed projection has pushed that 2% target out to 2017. Shortly before the closing bell the DJIA traded up 1.12% for the day, the S&P 500 traded up 1.18%, and the Nasdaq Composite traded up 0.90%.

The DJIA stock posting the largest daily percentage gain ahead of the close Wednesday was Caterpillar Inc. (NYSE: CAT) which traded higher by 3.78% at $81.42. The stock’s 52-week range is $78.19 to $111.46. Trading volume was about 35% above the daily average of around 6.4million shares. Like most blue chips today, Caterpillar got a boost on the Fed announcement.

Chevron Corp. (NYSE: CVX) traded up 3.06% at $106.33. The stock’s 52-week range is $98.88 to $135.10. Trading volume was about equal to the daily average of around 8.6 million shares. The company had no specific news today, but crude prices rose after the Fed announcement, pulling Chevron and fellow index energy giant Exxon Mobil higher.

Merck & Co. Inc. (NYSE: MRK) traded up 1.97% at $57.58. The stock’s 52-week range is $52.49 to $63.62. Trading volume was about equal to the daily average of around 10.9 million shares. The company had no specific news today.

Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ: MSFT) traded up 1.95% at $42.51. The stock’s 52-week range is $38.51 to $50.05. Trading volume was about 10% below daily average of around 37 million shares. The software giant also got a boost from the FOMC announcement.

Of the Dow 30 stocks 28 are set to close higher today and just 2 are on track to close lower.
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