At the close of the New York Stock Exchange, the Dow Jones fell 0.18%, the S&P 500 rose 0.14% and the NASDAQ Composite rose 0.40%.

Fed chief Jerome Powell said the regulator will continue to raise the discount rate in the fight against inflation.

According to CME Group, most analysts now expect the regulator to raise the discount rate immediately by 0.5 percentage points, to 5-5.25% per annum.

Shares of Intel Corporation led the way among the components of the Dow Jones index today, which gained 0.45 points (1.76%) to close at 25.98. Quotes of Caterpillar Inc rose by 2.58 points (1.05%), closing the session at 248.72. Home Depot Inc rose 2.88 points or 1.00% to close at 291.49.

The least gainers were Merck & Company Inc, which shed 2.99 points or 2.69% to end the session at 108.28. The Travelers Companies Inc (NYSE:TRV) was up 2.60 points or 1.44% to close at 177.77, while Verizon Communications Inc was down 0.38 points or 1.00%. and finished trading at 37.53.

Leading gainers among the components of the S&P 500 in today's trading were Advanced Micro Devices Inc, which rose 3.97% to hit 85.37, Arista Networks, which gained 3.90% to close at 148.44, and also shares of NVIDIA Corporation, which rose 3.83% to end the session at 241.81.

The least gainers were Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings Ltd, which shed 4.20% to close at 15.29. Shares of Brown Forman lost 4.20% to end the session at 63.48. Regeneron Pharmaceuticals Inc fell 3.70% to 745.20.

Leading gainers among the components of the NASDAQ Composite in today's trading were Kimball International Inc, which rose 84.35% to hit 12.37, Castor Maritime Inc, which gained 75.93% to close at 0.95, and also shares of Maxeon Solar Technologies Ltd, which rose 44.00% to close the session at 27.00.

The least gainers were SRAX Inc, which shed 62.03% to close at 0.60. Shares of Intelligent Bio Solutions Inc shed 42.66% to end the session at 3.40. Quotes of ETAO International Co Ltd decreased in price by 40.75% to 1.89.

On the New York Stock Exchange, the number of securities that rose in price (1564) exceeded the number of those that closed in the red (1446), while quotes of 111 shares remained virtually unchanged. On the NASDAQ stock exchange, 1,934 stocks fell, 1,682 rose, and 194 remained at the previous close.

The CBOE Volatility Index, which is based on S&P 500 options trading, fell 2.40% to 19.12.

Gold futures for April delivery lost 0.10%, or 1.75, to hit $1.00 a troy ounce. In other commodities, WTI April futures fell 1.37%, or 1.06, to $76.52 a barrel. Brent oil futures for May delivery fell 0.94%, or 0.78, to $82.51 a barrel.

Meanwhile, in the forex market, the EUR/USD pair remained unchanged 0.01% to 1.05, while USD/JPY rose 0.13% to hit 137.32.

Futures on the USD index rose 0.05% to 105.64.