Stocks Opened Higher as Fed Meeting Commenced

U.S. stocks opened solidly higher on Tuesday, as the Federal Reserve’s Open Market Committee kicked off the first of two days of policy meetings.. The Dow Jones Industrial Average lately rose 111.08 points, or 0.43%, to 26,025.18. The S&P 500 was up 9.43 points, or 0.33%, to 2,842.37. The Nasdaq Composite gained 27.97 points, or 0.36%, to 7,742.44.

Oil prices extended their climb to multimonth highs in Tuesday action, buoyed further by expectations major global producers outside the U.S. will hold back output. April West Texas Intermediate crude added 32 cents, or 0.5%, to $59.41 a barrel. May Brent crude added 56 cents, or 0.8%, to $68.10 a barrel.

The Fed’s Open Market Committee (FOMC) will release a statement on policy Wednesday afternoon, followed by public comments from Fed Chairman Jerome Powell.

The US-China trade war has roiled markets and hit the US economy by $7.8bn (£5.8bn), according to a new study by the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER).Researchers added that “annual consumer and producer losses from higher costs of imports were $68.8bn (0.37% of GDP).”