Breaking News
Investing Pro 0
💎 Access the Market Tools Trusted by Thousands of Investors Get Started

Wall Street moves sideways as investors look to Fed

Published Sep 18, 2023 06:22AM ET Updated Sep 18, 2023 07:15PM ET
Saved. See Saved Items.
This article has already been saved in your Saved Items
 
© Reuters. Traders work on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) in New York City, U.S., September 11, 2023. REUTERS/Brendan McDermid
 
US500
-0.23%
Add to/Remove from Watchlist
Add to Watchlist
Add Position

Position added successfully to:

Please name your holdings portfolio
 
DJI
-0.31%
Add to/Remove from Watchlist
Add to Watchlist
Add Position

Position added successfully to:

Please name your holdings portfolio
 
MSFT
-0.79%
Add to/Remove from Watchlist
Add to Watchlist
Add Position

Position added successfully to:

Please name your holdings portfolio
 
AMZN
-0.16%
Add to/Remove from Watchlist
Add to Watchlist
Add Position

Position added successfully to:

Please name your holdings portfolio
 
VFC
-1.02%
Add to/Remove from Watchlist
Add to Watchlist
Add Position

Position added successfully to:

Please name your holdings portfolio
 
MU
+1.44%
Add to/Remove from Watchlist
Add to Watchlist
Add Position

Position added successfully to:

Please name your holdings portfolio
 

By Stephen Culp

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Wall Street closed little changed on Monday as market participants looked ahead to the U.S. Federal Reserve's expected decision to leave key interest rates unchanged on Wednesday.

All three major U.S. stock indexes ended a choppy session with nominal gains, as investors, with few catalysts showed little conviction heading into the Fed's two-day monetary policy meeting.

"(Fed Chairman Jerome) Powell can spark big moves in either direction with his comments and you don’t want to get caught on the wrong side of it," said Peter Tuz, president of Chase Investment Counsel in Charlottesville, Virginia.

The central bank has vowed to remain agile with respect to economic data, which has shown signs that core inflation remains on its meandering descent back toward the Fed's annual 2% target, and suggests the U.S. economy remains on firm footing.

Against this backdrop, growing jitters that a stalemate on Capitol Hill could result in a potential government shutdown had market participants on edge.

Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen on Monday said that while she sees no risk of an economic downtown, she warned that a government shutdown would be "Creating ... a situation that could cause a loss of momentum is something we don't need as a risk at this point."

The week's main event is the Fed's policy meeting, which is expected to culminate in a rate hike pause, leaving the Fed funds target rate unchanged for the second time since March 2022, when the central bank fired its opening salvo in its battle against inflation.

The Federal Open Markets Committee (FOMC) is also due to release its quarterly Summary of Economic Projections, which will include the "dot plot," or a glimpse into participating members' expectations regarding the future path of interest rates.

Financial markets have currently baked in a 99% certainty that the Fed will hold the key rate at 5.25%-5.00% on Wednesday. Beyond that, the trajectory is less certain, with a 69% likelihood of the FOMC holding firm in November, according to CME's FedWatch tool.

"The market would like to see the dot plot come in lower than last time," said Sam Stovall, chief investment strategist of CFRA Research in New York. "It's a case of bad news is good news; most people would say it would be good if the summary economic projections called for economic softening next year," as they gauge the timing of a potential Fed pivot.

On the other hand, the possibility that the softening could mutate into recession remains a top concern.

"Investors are questioning the likelihood of a slowdown versus the hard landing, wondering if things could get worse than forecasters are currently projecting," Stovall added.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 6.06 points, or 0.02%, to 34,624.3, the S&P 500 gained 3.21 points, or 0.07%, to 4,453.53 and the Nasdaq Composite added 1.90 points, or 0.01%, to 13,710.24.

Energy shares, buoyed by rising crude prices gained the most of the 11 major sectors of the S&P 500, while consumer discretionary stocks suffered the biggest percentage drop, with Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) Inc weighing heaviest.

VF Corp (NYSE:VFC) slumped 4.6% following Piper Sandler's downgrade of the apparel company's shares to "neutral" from "overweight."

British chipmaker Arm Holdings (NASDAQ:ARM) slid 4.5% after Bernstein initiated coverage with an "underperform" rating just days after its stellar debut.

Paypal Holdings (NASDAQ:PYPL) dipped 2.0% after MoffettNathanson cut its rating to "market perform" from "outperform."

Declining issues outnumbered advancing ones on the NYSE by a 1.22-to-1 ratio; on Nasdaq, a 1.74-to-1 ratio favored decliners.

The S&P 500 posted 6 new 52-week highs and 11 new lows; the Nasdaq Composite recorded 37 new highs and 247 new lows.

Volume on U.S. exchanges was 9.44 billion shares, compared with the 10.05 billion average for the full session over the last 20 trading days.

Wall Street moves sideways as investors look to Fed
 

Related Articles

Add a Comment

Comment Guidelines

We encourage you to use comments to engage with other users, share your perspective and ask questions of authors and each other. However, in order to maintain the high level of discourse we’ve all come to value and expect, please keep the following criteria in mind:  

  •            Enrich the conversation, don’t trash it.

  •           Stay focused and on track. Only post material that’s relevant to the topic being discussed. 

  •           Be respectful. Even negative opinions can be framed positively and diplomatically. Avoid profanity, slander or personal attacks directed at an author or another user. Racism, sexism and other forms of discrimination will not be tolerated.

  • Use standard writing style. Include punctuation and upper and lower cases. Comments that are written in all caps and contain excessive use of symbols will be removed.
  • NOTE: Spam and/or promotional messages and comments containing links will be removed. Phone numbers, email addresses, links to personal or business websites, Skype/Telegram/WhatsApp etc. addresses (including links to groups) will also be removed; self-promotional material or business-related solicitations or PR (ie, contact me for signals/advice etc.), and/or any other comment that contains personal contact specifcs or advertising will be removed as well. In addition, any of the above-mentioned violations may result in suspension of your account.
  • Doxxing. We do not allow any sharing of private or personal contact or other information about any individual or organization. This will result in immediate suspension of the commentor and his or her account.
  • Don’t monopolize the conversation. We appreciate passion and conviction, but we also strongly believe in giving everyone a chance to air their point of view. Therefore, in addition to civil interaction, we expect commenters to offer their opinions succinctly and thoughtfully, but not so repeatedly that others are annoyed or offended. If we receive complaints about individuals who take over a thread or forum, we reserve the right to ban them from the site, without recourse.
  • Only English comments will be allowed.
  • Any comment you publish, together with your investing.com profile, will be public on investing.com and may be indexed and available through third party search engines, such as Google.

Perpetrators of spam or abuse will be deleted from the site and prohibited from future registration at Investing.com’s discretion.

Write your thoughts here
 
Are you sure you want to delete this chart?
 
Post
Post also to:
 
Replace the attached chart with a new chart ?
1000
Your ability to comment is currently suspended due to negative user reports. Your status will be reviewed by our moderators.
Please wait a minute before you try to comment again.
Thanks for your comment. Please note that all comments are pending until approved by our moderators. It may therefore take some time before it appears on our website.
Comments (7)
Ndrew Wen
Ndrew Wen Sep 18, 2023 9:25PM ET
Saved. See Saved Items.
This comment has already been saved in your Saved Items
Once powell said pause and biden do nothing then welcome $100 oil world
Sultaan Ali Rind
Sultaan Ali Rind Sep 18, 2023 3:17PM ET
Saved. See Saved Items.
This comment has already been saved in your Saved Items
Stan Smith
Stan Smith Sep 18, 2023 2:38PM ET
Saved. See Saved Items.
This comment has already been saved in your Saved Items
Do markets ever go down when waiting for the FED?...we all know markets get pumped ahead of the FED to offset losses...part of Wall St's management and control game. Sad that these markets were once based on price discovery now its just a phony charade pretending to be real!
Ashish Maurya
Ashish Maurya Sep 18, 2023 2:09PM ET
Saved. See Saved Items.
This comment has already been saved in your Saved Items
this AI is like dotcom....it will burst with a bang...wait for limit gap down in Nov - Dec 2023
Mitchel Pioneer
Mitchel Pioneer Sep 18, 2023 9:43AM ET
Saved. See Saved Items.
This comment has already been saved in your Saved Items
The fraud resumes in earnest.  Gotta keep the laughingstock of the financial world propped at the most grossly overvalued level in history.
First Last
First Last Sep 18, 2023 9:43AM ET
Saved. See Saved Items.
This comment has already been saved in your Saved Items
"resumes" means fraud stopped.
Weeping Angel
Weeping Angel Sep 18, 2023 9:43AM ET
Saved. See Saved Items.
This comment has already been saved in your Saved Items
It did stop, over the weekend
First Last
First Last Sep 18, 2023 9:43AM ET
Saved. See Saved Items.
This comment has already been saved in your Saved Items
Weeping Angel   So no fraud yesterday and premarket today when SPX futures were trading.
Derick Lim
Derick Lim Sep 18, 2023 7:09AM ET
Saved. See Saved Items.
This comment has already been saved in your Saved Items
A slump in chipsmaker concern......sounds likeca dirty words after all the AI 🐂💩hype about high demand and shortage of chips for the next few years......
Barry Nickerson
Subbuilder Sep 18, 2023 6:39AM ET
Saved. See Saved Items.
This comment has already been saved in your Saved Items
Do I hear K.C. and the Sunshine Band playing??
 
Are you sure you want to delete this chart?
 
Post
 
Replace the attached chart with a new chart ?
1000
Your ability to comment is currently suspended due to negative user reports. Your status will be reviewed by our moderators.
Please wait a minute before you try to comment again.
Add Chart to Comment
Confirm Block

Are you sure you want to block %USER_NAME%?

By doing so, you and %USER_NAME% will not be able to see any of each other's Investing.com's posts.

%USER_NAME% was successfully added to your Block List

Since you’ve just unblocked this person, you must wait 48 hours before renewing the block.

Report this comment

I feel that this comment is:

Comment flagged

Thank You!

Your report has been sent to our moderators for review
Continue with Google
or
Sign up with Email