Wall St rises on Microsoft, Alphabet earnings as Fed decision looms

Microsoft, Alphabet results spark rally in megacap stocks; T-Mobile up after raising subscriber growth forecast; Boeing rises on keeping cash flow goal

The tech-heavy Nasdaq surged nearly 3% on Wednesday, leading Wall Street's main indexes higher, as upbeat quarterly reports from Microsoft and Alphabet lifted sentiment ahead of a key U.S. interest rate decision later in the day.

Investors widely expect the U.S. central bank to increase interest rates by another 75 basis points later on Wednesday, with focus likely to shift to how deeply signs of an economic slowdown have registered with its policymakers.

Money market traders were even betting on a one-in-four chance that the Fed would surprise markets with a larger 1-percentage-point increase, as per CME Group's Fedwatch tool.

The decision is