Stocks Firm, Dollar Retreats Ahead of Fed Decision

Stocks Firm, Dollar Retreats Ahead of Fed Decision
Passersby walk past an electric stock quotation board outside a brokerage in Tokyo on Dec. 30, 2022. Issei Kato/Reuters
Reuters
Updated:

LONDON/SINGAPORE—Global stocks edged up on Wednesday as signs of slowing U.S. wage growth supported expectations that the Federal Reserve could signal an end to interest-rate hikes at its meeting later in the day.

Wall Street indexes had rallied, as had bonds to a lesser extent, while the dollar gave up gains overnight when the Fed’s preferred wages gauge, the U.S. employment cost index, showed a 1 percent rise last quarter, its smallest increase in a year.