ANKARA

US stocks opened higher Thursday after the Federal Reserve's key meeting, despite growing recession worries.

The blue-chip Dow was up 59 points, or 0.18% to 32,257 at 9.36 a.m. EDT. The S&P 500 rose 12 points, or 0.3%, to 4,036.

The tech-heavy Nasdaq rose 26 points, or 0.2%, to 12,058.

The indexes rallied late Wednesday after the Fed raised its benchmark interest rate by 75 basis points. That was against expectations of the possibility of a hike of 100 basis points.

"It will likely be appropriate to slow the pace of (interest rate) increases" at some point, said Fed Chair Jerome Powell, and he signaled that a higher rate hike could come at the Fed's next meeting in September.

The Fed's aggressive monetary tightening, however, continues to create recession fears, which was fueled by negative GDP data that was released Thursday.

The US economy contracted at an annual rate of 0.9% in the second quarter, according to the Commerce Department’s first reading, which followed a 1.6% contraction in the first quarter.

The VIX volatility index, also known as the fear index, fell 2.2% to 22.73. The 10-year US Treasury yield decreased 2% to 2.678%.

The dollar index was flat at 106.44. The euro was down 0.4% to $1.0164 against the dollar.

Precious metals were on the rise with gold adding 1% to $1,751 and silver soaring 3.5% to $19.77.

Global oil benchmark Brent crude was at $103.18 per barrel for a 1.5% gain, while US benchmark West Texas Intermediate (WTI) was at $98.69 -- up 1.5%.