US stocks rose on Wednesday afternoon after Federal Reserve chair Jay Powell said he did not expect the central bank to increase interest rates again, but said there was more progress that needed to be made on inflation.
The blue-chip S&P 500 was up 0.5 per cent in mid-afternoon trade, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite was up 0.7 per cent. The two-year Treasury yield, which moves with interest rate expectations, was flat at 4.56 per cent.
The breezy state of affairs in markets persisted despite the fact that beleaguered New York Community Bancorp had dropped more than 40 per cent earlier in the day, suggesting traders were not worried about contagion in the regional banking sector.