Wall Street extends gain after Fed says to be patient on rates

By Noel Randewich

(Reuters) - U.S. stocks extended their rally on Wednesday after the Federal Reserve said it would be patient in lifting borrowing costs further this year, reassuring investors worried about a slowing economy.

Along with better-than-feared quarterly results from Apple, the Fed's comments helped Wall Street reverse two down days triggered by profit warnings from U.S. bellwethers that signalled a bigger impact from a slowdown in China.

The Fed held interest rates steady, as widely expected.

Apple shares jumped 5.8 percent after reporting a sharp growth in services business, easing concerns after the iPhone maker earlier this month cut current-quarter sales forecast.

Boeing Co gained 6.7 percent after the world's largest planemaker forecast full-year profit and cash flow above analysts' estimates amid a boom in air travel and speedier 737 production.

Following the Fed's rate announcement, all three main U.S. stock indexes extended gains from earlier in the session.

At 2:03 p.m. in New York (1903 GMT), the Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 1.51 percent at 24,951.93, while the S&P 500 had gained 1.22 percent to 2,672.26.

The Nasdaq Composite added 1.64 percent to 7,143.34.

(Additional reporting by Sruthi Shankar and Shreyashi Sanyal in Bengaluru; Editing by James Dalgleish)