Stocks end with strong gains despite Fed plans

U.S. stocks indexes closed solidly higher Wednesday as investors welcomed new hints that the Federal Reserve could begin to raise interest rates as early as next month.

At the close on Wall Street, the Dow Jones industrial average was up 247.7 points, about 1.4 percent, to 17,737.2. The Standard & Poor's 500 index rose 33.1 points, about 1.6 percent, to 2,083.6. The Nasdaq composite increased 89.2 points, about 1.8 percent, to 5,075.2

About the same time, the price of the Dec. 15 contract for benchmark U.S. crude oil rose 21 cents to $40.88 a barrel in trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange.

FED WATCH: The minutes of the October meeting revealed that Fed policymakers believed the U.S. job market would improve further and that inflation would begin to move toward their 2 percent annual target by the time the Fed meets next month.

Members of the Fed Open Market Committee also took note of the U.S. economy's resilience through a summer of financial market turbulence and felt that global threats had "diminished."

The Fed has kept its benchmark for short-term rates near zero since late 2008. Higher rates tend to weigh on stock markets, but investors have mostly become prepared for the Fed to act in December.

CONSTRUCTION SLOWS: The Commerce Department's latest tally of home construction showed that builders broke ground on fewer houses and apartments in October. A steep drop in apartment construction contributed to the 11 percent slide in housing starts. Single-family house construction declined 2.4 percent.