▸ Wall Street climbs after Fed makes first rate cut since last Decem­ber

▸ Long-term Treas­ur­ies fall after cent­ral bank nudges infla­tion fore­casts higher

▸ Equity indices across the Atlantic also rise fol­low­ing US decision

Global stocks rose yes­ter­day after the US Fed­eral Reserve cut its bench­mark interest rate for the first time since last Decem­ber.

The US cent­ral bank lowered the bench­mark fed­eral funds tar­get range by a quarter of a per­cent­age point to 4-4.25 per cent on Wed­nes­day after­noon, as traders had over­whelm­ingly expec­ted.

Wall Street's blue-chip S&P 500 index was 0.7 per cent higher by early after­noon trad­ing in New York.

“From [Fed chair] Pow­ell's com­ments, we've learned that they now put more weight on the labour mar­ket and growth rather than infla­tion,” said Max Kettner, head of multi-asset strategy at HSBC.

Kettner added that this meant “the best of both worlds . . . still strong activ­ity data and a strong earn­ings out­look but a weak­en­ing labour mar­ket prompt­ing rate cuts”.