Opening bell: Markets looking up; Twitter penalized

(NewsNation) — Three major U.S. indices marched higher and are finally on track to snap record losing streaks.

Markets rallied on Wednesday, and if trading continues to go well the benchmark Dow Jones Industrial Average could snap an eight-week losing streak. The S&P and NASDAQ could break their seven-week slides as well.

On Wall Street, futures for the Dow rose 0.8%, as did the S&P 500.

U.S. markets marched higher before the open, one day after details from the Federal Reserve’s latest meeting confirmed expectations of more interest rate hikes.

On Wednesday, the S&P 500 index rose 0.9% after this month’s Fed meeting showed board members agreed half-point rate hikes “would likely be appropriate.” That would be double the usual margin of increases.

The Dow gained 0.6% and the Nasdaq composite climbed 1.5%.

TWITTER PENALIZED

Twitter will pay a $150 million penalty and put in new safeguards to settle federal regulators’ allegations that the social platform illegally gave advertisers access to user’s contact information for targeted advertising over a six-year span.

The Justice Department and the Federal Trade Commission announced the settlement with Twitter on Wednesday.

According to the government’s complaint, “Twitter represented to users that it collected their telephone numbers and email addresses to secure their accounts. Twitter failed to disclose that it also used user contact information to aid advertisers in reaching their preferred audiences.”

This was in direct violation of a 2011 FTC order prohibiting Twitter from misleading users about how it protects their personal data.

Twitter said Wednesday that the use of the personal information for ads was quote, inadvertent and that the incident was first disclosed in 2019.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.