While you were sleeping: UPDATED Wall Street rises as Fed signals patience

US Treasurys and Wall Street moved higher after US Federal Reserve policy makers kept their target interest rate on hold and say they will raise rates only at a "gradual" pace if needed.

"There is no smoking gun in the April statement to suggest the Fed will hike rates in June," says Gennadiy Goldberg, a New York-based interest-rate strategist for TD Securities (USA), one of the 23 primary dealers that trade with the Fed.

US Treasurys rose, pushing yields on benchmark 10-year notes six basis points lower to 1.86%.

"Labour market conditions have improved even as growth in economic activity appears to have slowed," according to a statement released after the Federal Open Market Committee's two-day meeting ended.

"Growth in household spending has moderated, although households' real income has risen at a solid rate and consumer sentiment remains high.

"The committee expects that, with gradual adjustments in the stance of monetary policy, economic activity will expand at a moderate pace and labour market indicators will continue to strengthen."

It says economic conditions will evolve in a manner that will warrant only gradual increases in the federal funds rate; the federal funds rate is likely to remain, for some time, below levels that are expected to prevail in the longer run.

The Fed said it will "closely monitor inflation indicators and global economic and financial developments."

Dow rises but Apple leads tech stock fall
Wall Street advanced. At the close, the Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 51.23 points, or 0.3%, to 18,041.55.

The Nasdaq Composite Index, which shed as much as 1% earlier, finished down 0.5% at 4863.14 as a slide in Apple shares weighed on the index. 

The Standard & Poor's 500 Index rose 0.2% to 2095.15.

The Dow was led by gains in shares of Boeing and those of Verizon Communications, up 3% and 2.6% respectively. Shares of Apple posted the largest percentage decline in the Dow, trading 6.3% lower.

Apple shares dropped after the company posted its first slide in iPhone sales, as well as its first drop in revenue in more than a decade. Its results weighed on other tech shares.

Shares of Twitter sank, trading 16% lower, after the company reported disappointing quarterly sales and offered an outlook for its next quarter that failed the meet expectations.

"It's obvious Twitter is having trouble," CRT Capital analyst Arvind Bhatia told Reuters. "It's not growing anywhere close to where people expected a while back."

Oil hits year's high
Oil prices hit their highest levels of the year after data that showed a surprise fall in US inventories. US-traded crude rose 2.9% to $US45.33 a barrel, climbing above the $US45 mark for the first time since November.

Elsewhere, shares of DreamWorks Animation SKG jumped 19% after the Wall Street Journal reported Comcast was in talks to buy the animated film studio for more than $US3 billion.

Shares of Las Vegas-based casino operator Red Rock Resorts fell 4.1% in their sharemarket debut. 

In Europe, the Stoxx 600 Index ended the day with a 0.3% increase from the previous close, amid better than expected earnings including from Norway's Statoil.

Germany's DAX index gained 0.4%, while the UK's FTSE 100 index rose 0.6%, as did France's CAC 40 index.

(BusinessDesk)