By Sinéad Carew
NEW YORK (Reuters) -MSCI'S global equities index registered its biggest daily gain in over five months on Wednesday and the dollar slightly pared losses after the U.S. Federal Reserve held interest rates steady but opened the door to interest rate cuts as soon as September.
The central bank, in line with investor expectations, in its statement noted further progress towards its 2% inflation and said the economy "continued to expand at a solid pace," while job gains moderated and the unemployment rate "remains low."
Chair Jerome Powell told reporters "there is a growing sense of confidence that you could move at the next meeting" as long as inflation data affirms its recent softening trend.
Investors had priced in unchanged rates and a strong signal that rate cuts could begin in September from the Fed, which has kept its policy rate in the 5.25%-5.50% range for the past year.
“It was the worst kept secret on the planet that the Fed was not going to cut in July," said Jake Dollarhide, CEO of Longbow Asset Management in Tulsa, Oklahoma.
"The Fed is going to have its day in the sun in September with a 25 or 50 basis point cut, but I would not be surprised if that is already priced into stocks."
Citing the Fed's reference to easing inflation and unemployment ticking up, Don Calcagni, chief investment officer at Mercer Advisors in Denver, Colorado. said "if you were going to make a case to cut rates, those are the data points you better cite in order to manage market expectations."
On Wall Street the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 99.46 points, or 0.24%, to 40,842.79, the S&P 500 gained 85.86 points, or 1.58%, to 5,522.30 and the Nasdaq Composite gained 451.98 points, or 2.64%, to 17,599.40.
It was the biggest one-day percentage gain for the S&P and the Nasdaq since Feb. 22.
MSCI's gauge of stocks across the globe rose 13.12 points, or 1.64%, to 814.55 also showing its biggest one-day percentage gain since Feb. 22. Earlier Europe's STOXX 600 index had closed up 0.8%.
In U.S. Treasuries, yields were mostly lower with the benchmark 10-year note yield on track for its biggest drop in two weeks, after the Federal Reserve kept interest rates at their current levels, as was widely expected.
The yield on benchmark U.S. 10-year notes fell 9.6 basis points to 4.045%, from 4.141% late on Tuesday.
The 2-year note yield, which typically moves in step with interest rate expectations, fell 8.7 basis points to 4.276%, hitting its lowest level since Feb. 2.
In currencies, the dollar added to losses after the Fed statement and comments from Powell.
"The Fed wants to let the data play out a little bit longer, even at the risk of falling behind the curve," said Adam Button, chief currency analyst at ForexLive in Toronto.
The dollar index, which measures the greenback against a basket of currencies including the yen and the euro, fell 0.37% to 104.06. The euro was up 0.09% at $1.0825.
But against the Japanese yen, the dollar weakened 1.75% to 150.08 after the Bank of Japan raised rates.
In energy, oil prices rebounded from seven-week lows after the killing of a Hamas leader in Iran ratcheted up tensions in the Middle East and a sharp drawdown in U.S. crude stockpiles.
U.S. crude settled up 4.26% at $77.91 a barrel and Brent rose to $80.72 per barrel, up 2.66% on the day.
Gold prices extended gains after Powell's rate cut hint rising well over 1% on the day.
Spot gold was last up 1.63% at $2,447.69 an ounce. U.S. gold futures gained 1.77% to $2,447.60 an ounce.