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Wall Street soars as Fed statement looms


    NEW YORK (Reuters) - Stocks extended their rally on Wednesday, pushing the Nasdaq and the S&P 500 up more than 3 percent minutes before the Federal Reserve's policy statement.

    * Optimism about a plan to remove money-losing assets from banks' books underpinned a broad-based advance, but financial shares were by far the biggest beneficiaries.

    * The Dow Jones industrial average gained more than 2 percent and the Nasdaq Composite Index was up 3.7 percent.

    (Reporting by Rodrigo Campos; Editing by James Dalgleish)