Stocks steady after Fed signals it's set to hike interest rates

Stocks rose in afternoon trading on Wednesday after the Federal Reserve left its key interest rate unchanged, but signaled that it plans to begin raising interest rates as soon as March.

In its latest policy statement, the Fed also said it would phase out its monthly bond purchases, which have been intended to lower longer-term rates, in March.

Stock indexes initially rose, then eased back to just below where they were before the Fed's statement was released at 2:00 p.m. Eastern time. The S&P 500 was up 1.1% as of 2:23 p.m. Eastern. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 216 points, or 0.6%, to 34,514 and the Nasdaq rose 2%.