国际英语新闻：U.S. stocks rise as Dow, S&P 500 hit 2-year closing high

NEW YORK, Dec. 14 (Xinhua) -- U.S. stocks rose on Tuesday, with the Federal Reserve's maintaining of easy-money policy and strong economic data sending the Dow Jones industrial average and the Standard & Poor's 500 index to their highest closing level in two years.

"The economic recovery is continuing, though at a rate that has been insufficient to bring down unemployment," the Fed said in a statement at the conclusion of its last scheduled meeting for this year.

The central bank said, "Household spending is increasing at a moderate pace, but remains constrained by high unemployment, modest income growth, lower housing wealth, and tight credit."

To boost the recovery and create jobs, the Federal Open Market Committee, a component of the Fed making key decisions about interest rates and the growth of the U.S. money supply, reaffirmed the 600 billion dollars purchase plan in bonds and repeated its pledge to leave the benchmark interest rate low for an "extended period."

Shortly after the Fed's statement was released, the Dow hit 11514.08, its highest intraday level since September 2008. But before the closing the Dow narrowed its gains to 47.98 points, or 0.42 percent as investors turned their attention to the potential inflation risk caused by the continuing of quantitative easing policy, but still hit its two-year close high with 11,476.54.

S&P 500 also reached its peak close since September 2008, up 1.13 points, or 0.09 percent, to 1,241.59. The Nasdaq was up 2.81 points, or 0.11 percent, to 2,627.72.

Earlier this day, Commerce Department figures showed, total retail sales increased 0.8 percent in November, stronger than expected, as holiday shopping got under way. Meanwhile, October data was revised up from a previously reported 1.2 percent gain to 1.7 percent. Excluding autos, sales rose 1.2 percent last month, which doubled the increase economists had expected. And the National Federation of Independent Business' sentiment gauge rose by 1.5 points to 93.2, the highest since December 2007, as more companies projected sales will grow.

The healthcare sector and capital goods sector gained, while the financial sector fell with shares of Citigroup Inc. down 2.49 percent.

In the other markets, crude prices fell on the Fed's statement, light, sweet crude for January delivery slipped 33 cents to 88.28 U.S. dollars a barrel on the New York Mercantile. The U.S. dollar traded mixed against major currencies in late New York trading, the euro rose near 1.350 against the dollar in mid trading session but fell below 1.34 later, and the dollar traded above 83.50 against the yen in late trading session. Gold futures on the COMEX Division of the New York Mercantile Exchange inched up to 1,404.3 U.S. dollars per ounce.