Stocks Edge Higher Ahead of Last Fed Meeting of the Year

The New York Stock Exchange in New York on June 29, 2022. Julia Nikhinson/AP Photo

NEW YORK—Stocks are opening slightly higher on Wall Street as markets hold on to hope that the U.S. Federal Reserve is ready to ease back slightly on its campaign to slow the economy with high interest rates. The Fed’s latest decision on rates is due out later Wednesday. It’s widely expected to raise its benchmark rate by half a percentage point, still double the usual move but not as huge as the last four hikes it has made, which were all three-quarters of a percentage point. The S&P 500 was up 0.3 percent.