US stocks resume record setting rally, surge during opening trade amid Fed rate hike talks

Major US equity indices resumed their record setting rally on Wednesday and opened sharply higher, recording gains in excess of 0.75% during opening trade. 

Investors welcomed the US President Donald Trump's reassuring tone during his first address to a joint session of the Congress, albeit lacked any specific details on much awaited tax reforms and infrastructure spending. 

Moreover, growing possibilities for an imminent Fed rate-hike action, against the backdrop of recent hawkish rhetoric from various Fed officials, lifted banking stocks and collaborated to the Wednesday's up-move.

Wednesday's US economic data, showing the Fed's preferred inflation gauge - Core PCE Price Index, rising to the highest level since 2012 further supported market expectations that the Fed would go ahead and raise short-term interest rates during its upcoming meeting on March 14-15.

At the time of writing, the Dow Jones Industrial Average jumped nearly 200-point and surged beyond another milestone of 21,000. Meanwhile, the broader S&P 500 Index added around 20-points to 2,383, and tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite Index gained 47-points to 5,872.