Markets jump on Powell comments

U.S. stocks closed higher Wednesday, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average surging more than 600 points, as investors digested Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell’s comments on future interest rates. The Dow rallied 617.70 points, or 2.5%, to 25,366.43, while the S&P 500 index advanced 61.65 points, or 2.3%, to 2,743.82. The Nasdaq Composite Index rose 208.89 points, or 3%, to 7,291.59.

European markets meanwhile ended trading little changed, as investors diverted their attention to comments from Bank of England Governor, Mark Carney, along with Fed chairman, Jerome Powell. The Stoxx Europe 600 ended little changed at 357.39 and German DAX slipped 0.1% to close at 11,298.88. The FTSE 100 closed 0.2% lower at 7,004.52.

Investigation at Deutsche Bank offices

Deutsche Bank AG’s offices including its headquarters in Frankfurt were being searched by prosecutors on Thursday in a money-laundering probe, prosecutors said in a statement. A probe into the so-called Panama Papers exposed evidence Deutsche Bank helped clients set up off-shore accounts. The officials said the raid wasn’t related to its role as a correspondent bank for money laundering at Denmark’s Danske Bank.

In an emailed statement, Deutsche Bank confirmed that police are investigating at several German locations in relation to Panama Papers, and said it is fully cooperating with authorities. Deutsche Bank has spent more than $18 billion paying fines and settling legal disputes since the start of 2008, according to company disclosures. Shares in the bank fell as much as 4.7 percent. They were down 3.2 percent at 8.32 euros at 10:40 a.m. in Frankfurt.

Comments from the Fed’s Jerome Powell

Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell opened the door for a potential pullback in projected interest-rate hikes for 2019 following a widely expected increase in December. His comments sparked a surge in a stock market that had struggled of late and came in the wake of repeated criticism of the Fed’s rate increases by President Donald Trump.

In what was seen as a shift in tone from remarks last month, Powell said Wednesday that the Fed’s series of rate increases had brought policy to “just below” the range of estimates of neutral, where it neither spurs nor restricts the economy. He also noted that the economy had yet to feel the full impact of the hikes.