The Dow Jones Industrial Average touched an all-time high of 17,221, an 89 point gain for the day.
At 2,010, the S&P 500 was just a point from its all-time intraday high, but it was also above its record high closing price of 2,007.
Markets have pulled back a hair, but they remain firmly in the green.
The Fed's FOMC statement release at 2:00 p.m. ET was followed by some volatility in the markets.
The Dow was down by around 40 points for the day.
Notably, the Fed kept the phrase "considerable time" to describe the period between the end of its tapering of quantitative easing and the beginning of interest rate hikes.
Some economists warned the Fed would drop this phrase, a sign that rate hikes could come sooner.
Fed watchers note that the so-called "dot plot" looks more hawkish than it did in June.
The "dot plot" is the diagram the illustrates the distribution of FOMC members' forecasts for the Fed's benchmark interest rate.
In other words, the dots suggest higher rates sooner than later.
Here's Brean Capital's Peter Tchir with the roundup:
Dots - 1.27% average for end of next year (up from 1.2% in June). More hawkish. Also hard to get to 1.25% starting in June. I had nice templates set up, but Fed went in 1/8's this time instead of 1/4's.
Markets weren't doing much ahead of the announcement.
The Dow was up 20 points and the S&P was up 2 points.
Here's a look at the current dot plot.
