Interest rate policy jump-starts Wall Street

Wall Street had a bullish start to the new year today, with the Dow Jones industrials surging more than 129 points after the Federal Reserve signaled a willingness to stop its campaign of interest rate rises in the near future.

In minutes from the Fed’s December 13 meeting, policy makers disagreed on exactly when to stop the policy of raising rates in quarter-percentage-point increments, but the Open Market Committee members did agree that an end was coming soon.