Global equity markets rose, led by a late-day surge on Wall Street, following the release of surprisingly strong third-quarter economic growth in the United States.

The Fed's decision to halt new purchases of Treasury bonds and mortgage-backed securities had been expected. But investors were somewhat surprised by the central bank's expression of confidence in the U.S. recovery, despite global growth concerns. The policy statement prompted markets to rethink the growing consensus that the Fed's first interest-rate hike would not be until late in 2015.

The Fed did note in its statement Wednesday after its meeting that overnight borrowing costs would remain near zero for a "considerable time."

"The tone in the statement was relatively more hawkish than had been anticipated," said Mohannad Aama, managing director of Beam Capital Management LLC in New York. "

The dollar <.DXY> rose 0.2 percent against a basket of six major currencies and also rose 0.2 percent against the euro, to $1.2607. The benchmark 10-year Treasury note yield rose 4/32 in price to yield 2.3085 percent.

MSCI's index <.MIWD00000PUS> of equities in 45 countries rose 0.1 percent.

The Dow Jones industrial average <.DJI> rose 221.11 points, or 1.3 percent, to 17,195.42, the S&P 500 <.SPX> gained 12.35 points, or 0.62 percent, to 1,994.65, and the Nasdaq Composite <.IXIC> added 16.91 points, or 0.37 percent, to 4,566.14.

Visa Inc (>> Visa Inc) surged 10.2 percent and was the biggest boost to both the Dow and S&P 500 a day after it reported adjusted earnings that topped expectations, and said the mobile payment industry would be a "great driver" for business.

Gold slumped to a three-week low just under $1,200 an ounce, pressured by the strong dollar. Oil also fell, with Brent crude down 1.3 percent to $86.02 a barrel and U.S. crude down 1.5 percent to $80.96 a barrel. A stronger dollar makes commodities priced in the currency, including oil, costlier for buyers using other denominations

Brazilian assets rallied, a day after the central bank unexpectedly hiked interest rates, which signaled that President Dilma Rousseff may make market-friendly policy changes after her narrow re-election victory on Sunday.

The real jumped as much as 3 percent while the benchmark Bovespa index <.BVSP> rose 2.8 percent. The real had hit a nine-year low against the dollar on Monday after Rousseff defeated challenger Aecio Neves.

(Editing by Meredith Mazzilli and Leslie Adler)

By Yasmeen Abutaleb

Stocks treated in this article : American Express Company, Apple Inc., Mastercard Inc, Visa Inc