Stocks rise after Fed meeting, China's stock market returning to "normalcy"

Stocks were mostly up on Wednesday after the Federal Reserve monetary policy meeting.

In a statement following its policy meeting, Fed officials suggested they had become less concerned about financial-market volatility and international economic growth.

While stocks initially dipped after the meeting, they recovered subsequently to leave the S&P 500 up 1.2 percent at the end of the day.

In Europe, the STOXX Europe 600 closed 1.1 prcent higher.

However, earlier in Asia, markets were mixed. The Hang Seng Index fell 0.8 percent and the Shanghai Composite Index lost 1.7 percent but Japan’s Nikkei 225 rose 0.7 percent.

Wednesday's decline notwithstanding, China's stock market has been looking positive lately. From Bloomberg:

Less than five months after China’s equity bubble burst, the Shanghai Composite Index is surging once again.

This month’s 11 percent rebound is one of the biggest surprises in global markets after international money managers all but gave up on Chinese stocks in the wake of a $5 trillion crash, according to JPMorgan Chase & Co. What’s even more remarkable is that the gains look like the result of buying from ordinary investors, rather than the government-run funds who sought to prop up prices during the rout.

Some analysts think that the rally in China's stock market will be sustained.

“We do expect the market to post better gains for the rest of the year amid policy initiatives, including rate cuts,” said Audrey Goh, a strategist at Standard Chartered Plc. “There are some signs of normalcy coming back.”