GLOBAL MARKETS-Wall Street extends rally, Treasury yields slip as Fed sees rate cuts this year

By Stephen Culp

NEW YORK, March 19 (Reuters) - U.S. stocks bounced higher on Wednesday after the U.S. Federal Reserve left its key interest rate unchanged but hinted that it would reduce borrowing costs by half a percentage point by the end of the year.

Gold flipped positive and U.S. Treasury yields pared gains after the central bank marked up its inflation expectations in view of U.S. President Donald Trump's tariff rollouts and lowered its economic outlook for the year.

All three major U.S. stock indexes gained upward momentum, with tech stocks .SPLRCT taking the lead and boosting the Nasdaq's advance above 1%.

"Given growing worries around tariffs and how they could affect U.S. growth and inflation, the Fed took a widely expected 'wait and see' approach on rates," said Matthias Scheiber, head of the multi-asset solutions team at Allspring Global Investments in London.

"We believe the next likely window for the Fed to lower rates will be May or later, and market analysts expect two cuts in 2025."

At his subsequent Q&A session, Fed Chair Jerome Powell acknowledged inflation is still elevated and uncertainties related to policy changes persist, but he provided reassurance that the economy remains strong and the labor market is solid.

Turkey detained President Tayyip Erdogan's main political rival in what the main opposition party called "a coup against our next president," battering Turkish stocks and sending the lira TRYTOM=D3 plunging as much as 14.5% against the dollar before it pared those losses.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy was set to speak with U.S. President Donald Trump on Wednesday and said the United States should be in charge of monitoring any ceasefire in the Ukraine war.

"We live in such a global society there's always going to be something happening out there in the world," said Matthew Keator, managing partner in the Keator Group, a wealth management firm in Lenox, Massachusetts. "But long-term investors, I believe, have the ability to kind of look through some of that day-to-day noise."

The Dow Jones Industrial Average .DJI rose 347.67 points, or 0.84%, to 41,928.98, the S&P 500 .SPX rose 62.12 points, or 1.09%, to 5,676.81 and the Nasdaq Composite .IXIC rose 266.78 points, or 1.51%, to 17,768.99.

European stocks closed higher, notching their fourth consecutive session of gains buoyed by Germany's debt overhaul as investors focused on the Fed.

Europe's broad FTSEurofirst 300 index .FTEU3 rose 4.30 points, or 0.20%.

MSCI's gauge of stocks across the globe .MIWD00000PUS rose 6.68 points, or 0.80%, to 846.21.

The pan-European STOXX 600 .STOXX index rose 0.19%, while Emerging market stocks .MSCIEF fell 1.89 points, or 0.17%, to 1,143.28. MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan .MIAPJ0000PUS closed lower by 0.13%, to 594.22, while Japan's Nikkei .N225 fell 93.54 points, or 0.25%, to 37,751.88.

The dollar gave back some gains in the wake of central bank's decision, as markets continued to process Turkey's arrest of Istanbul mayor Ekrem Imamoglu, Erdogan's main political rival.

The dollar index =USD, which measures the greenback against a basket of currencies including the yen and the euro, rose 0.12% to 103.42, with the euro EUR= down 0.3% at $1.091.

Against the Japanese yen JPY=, the dollar weakened 0.27% to 148.86.

The Turkish lira TRYTOM=D3 was last trading off 3.53% at 37.965 per dollar.

Cryptocurrencies gathered some momentum in the wake of the Fed's downgraded economic outlook.

Bitcoin BTC= gained 3.22% to $84,651.71. Ethereum ETH= rose 6.41% to $2,027.54.

U.S. Treasury yields pared their earlier advance after policymakers indicated they anticipate the Fed funds target rate will be reduced by 50 basis points this year.

The yield on benchmark U.S. 10-year notes US10YT=RR fell 2.7 basis points to 4.254%, from 4.281% late on Tuesday. The 30-year bond US30YT=RR yield fell 1.4 basis points to 4.5651% from 4.579% late on Tuesday.

The 2-year note US2YT=RR yield, which typically moves in step with interest rate expectations for the Federal Reserve, fell 5.9 basis points to 3.983%, from 4.042% late on Tuesday.

Crude prices gained ground after U.S. data showed an inventory drawdown, while markets kept an eye on the limited Russia-Ukraine ceasefire.

U.S. crude CLc1 rose 0.39% to settle at $67.16 per barrel, while Brent LCOc1 settled at $70.78 per barrel, up 0.31% on the day.

Gold prices turned positive in the wake of the Fed's lowered economic projections.

Spot gold XAU= rose 0.43% to $3,047.09 an ounce. U.S. gold futures GCc1 rose 0.24% to $3,042.30 an ounce.