Stock Market Today: Stocks Close Higher in Volatile Session

Stocks pared earlier gains Thursday, but still closed higher in the wake of Wednesday's post-Fed selloff. Investors continued to evaluate yesterday's comments from Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell, who indicated an end to rate hikes could be near, as well as concerning bank deposit commentary from Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen. 

There was nothing particularly unexpected in the Fed's decision to hike rates by 25 basis points on Wednesday, nor did Powell's subsequent presser reveal anything that hasn't already been said by the Fed chair and his central bank colleagues – other than suggesting that its rate-hike campaign could end soon. Still, all three major indexes slumped roughly 1.6% each yesterday thanks to significant late-session selling. Some observers pinned the blame on Yellen, who said during congressional testimony that she hadn't discussed anything to do with blanket insurance or guarantees of all deposits.

"Fed Chair Powell started the press conference by noting that the banking system is sound, but Treasury Secretary Yellen put a wrench in that idea," says Edward Moya, senior market strategist at currency data provider OANDA, adding that it "sounds like we are nowhere near having a debate on whether to raise [the] FDIC limit above $250,000." 

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But today, the stock market soared early on before turning lower in late-afternoon trading. Still, the Dow Jones Industrial Average finished up 0.2% at 32,105, the S&P 500 gained 0.3% to 3,948, and the Nasdaq Composite added 1.0% to 11,787. 

In single-stock news, Square parent Block (SQ) fell 14.8% after noted short seller Hindenburg Research said it is betting against the fintech stock, and accused the company of fraud. Coinbase Global (COIN) was another notable decliner, sinking 14.1% after the cryptocurrency exchange platform received a Wells notice from the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). This is a letter sent by the SEC to inform a company the regulatory agency has identified possible violations of securities law.

Amazon stock among Wall Street's biggest long-term outperformers

How can investors pick the best stocks to buy? That's an age-old question that if anyone were able to answer would make us all rich. In reality, success in stock trading comes from many things, including education, research and a lot of luck. 

Another aspect behind successful investing is time. Don't take it from us, take it from Warren Buffett. "Our favorite holding period is forever," the Oracle of Omaha famously said. We've recently started a series investigating some individual stocks that have produced outstanding returns for investors over the past 20 years. Nvidia and Apple – which happens to be one of Warren Buffett's favorite stocks – top the list, as does Netflix. 

Most recently, we ran the numbers on Amazon stock. While the e-commerce giant has lost nearly $900 billion in value since its all-time high, it has still created outstanding returns for long-time shareholders.