Nasdaq Rises Sharply, Market Volatility Increases

The Nasdaq and S&P 500 jumped to around five-month high on Thursday as investors digested comments from Federal Reserve chair Jerome Powell.

The Fed, on Wednesday, hiked its benchmark rate by 0.25%.

Shares of Apple AAPL, Amazon AMZN and Alphabet GOOGL dropped in after-hours trading on Thursday following the release of quarterly results.

Major sectors on the S&P 500 closed on a mixed note, with information technology and communication services stocks recording the biggest surge on Thursday. However, energy stocks bucked the overall market trend, dropping around 2.5% during the session.

The Nasdaq 100 jumped 3.56% to close at 12,803.14 on Thursday.

The S&P 500 gained 1.47%, while the Dow Jones fell 0.11% to 34,053.94 in the previous session.

The Chicago Board Options Exchange's CBOE Volatility Index (VIX) rose 4.8% to 18.73 points on Thursday.

What is CBOE Volatility Index?

The CBOE Volatility Index, popularly known as VIX, is a measure of the equity market's expectation of volatility based on S&P 500 index call and put options.

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