With the Federal Reserve's monetary policy announcement showing no major changes, stocks continue to see significant strength in mid-afternoon trading on Wednesday. The major averages are hovering firmly in positive territory after moving sharply higher in early trading.
The rally seen earlier in the session was largely due to a positive reaction to better than expected quarterly results from tech giant Apple (AAPL). Apple, the world's largest publicly-traded company by market capitalization, has risen by 9 percent on the news.
Stocks have continued to perform well following the Fed's monetary policy announcement, which showed that the central bank left interest rates unchanged at near-zero levels. The statement did not provide any new clues about the outlook for further quantitative easing.
Healthcare provider stocks continue to see considerable strength in mid-day trading, with the Morgan Stanley Healthcare Provider Index up by 2.9 percent. Kindred Healthcare (KND) has helped to lead the healthcare provider sector higher, surging up by 22.1 percent.
Significant strength is also visible among chemical stocks, as reflected by the 2.8 percent gain being posted by the Dow Jones Chemicals Index. FMC Corp. (FMC) is turning in one of the sector's best performances after declaring a 2-for-1 stock split and a quarterly dividend of $0.09 per share.
Computer hardware, railroad, gold and semiconductor stocks are also posting strong gains, with Apple leading the hardware sector to the upside.
While the major averages have all moved higher on the day, the Nasdaq is outperforming its counterparts by a wide margin. The Nasdaq is up 62.61 points or 2.1 percent at 3,024.21, the S&P 500 is up 16.01 points or 1.2 percent at 1,387.98 and the Dow is up 63.69 points or 0.5 percent at 13,064.95.
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Market Analysis
June 12, 2026 17:14 ET Major central bank action was the focus this week in economic news. The European Central Bank became the first major central bank to move in response to the rising inflationary pressures in the backdrop of the conflict in the Middle East. In North America, the U.S. inflation and trade data as well as Canada’s central bank decision gained attention. The Chinese trade data was the main news in Asia.