NEW YORK, Nov. 11 (Xinhua) -- U.S. stocks posted weekly gains as investors digested Federal Reserve's latest monetary policy as well as a batch of key economic data.
For the week, the Dow registered an increase of 2.8 percent, the S&P 500 returned 2.1 percent over the past five sessions, while the Nasdaq eked out a 0.7 percent gain.
The Fed left the key interest rates unchanged, in line with market expectations, keeping the central bank on track with one more rate hike in December.
It said in a statement that the U.S. labor market has continued to strengthen and the economic activity "has been rising at a strong rate" since its last policy meeting in September, when it raised rates for the third time in the year.
The Fed has already raised interest rates three times this year and the market largely expects another hike before the year-end.
Concerns about the pace of interest rate hikes led to market volatility last month.
On the economic front, the producer price index jumped 0.6 percent in October, driven by more expensive gas, food, and chemicals, according to statistics released by the Labor Department on Friday.
The University of Michigan's consumer sentiment index for November hit 98.3, slightly higher than the average forecast of economists.
On the earnings front, Walt Disney reported quarterly earnings and revenue that topped analysts' expectations on Thursday. The company registered earnings per share of 1.48 U.S. dollars and revenue of 14.31 billion dollars.
Investors also monitored the midterm elections closely in the past week.
The results showed that Democratic Party will gain control of the House of Representatives and the Republican Party will solidify its grip on the Senate.
Investors were bullish following the result as they believed that gridlock in Washington will help the market.
They expected U.S. President Donald Trump's pro-business policies to continue and that the Congress will provide a larger check on his disruptive moves such as his trade policies toward the country's major trading partners.
