Stock Market News: Dow Heading for 9th Straight Loss
U.S. stocks were on course to fall on Tuesday, as investors focused on the Federal Reserve’s final meeting of 2024.
Futures tracking the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 171 points, or 0.4%. The blue-chip index is riding its longest losing streak since 2018–it has fallen eight days in a row. Contracts tied to the Nasdaq 100 slid 0.3%, after the tech-heavy gauge hit a record high Monday, and S&P 500 futures were also down 0.3%.
The Fed’s December meeting is set to kick off today and conclude tomorrow, with the central bank widely expected to cut interest rates by a quarter of a basis point. The market will likely focus on Chair Jerome Powell’s comments, which could signal where borrowing costs are headed next year.
While a quarter-point cut is “the overwhelmingly likely outcome” from Wednesday’s policy decision, “the consensus is that the Fed will take a more gradual approach from there, embedding just two additional cuts through 2025,” Mark Hackett, chief of investment research for the U.K. bank Nationwide, said.
He added that Powell is currently “walking the knife’s edge” by slashing borrowing costs at a time when the U.S. economy still looks strong and inflation is still running above the central bank’s 2% target.
Oil prices were slipping after a flurry of weak Chinese economic data, published Monday, renewed concerns about global demand for crude. The Brent international benchmark was down 0.3% to $73.66 a barrel, while West Texas Intermediate crude fell 0.5% to $70.34 a barrel.
Bond yields were up slightly over the past 24 hours. The yield on the benchmark 10-year U.S. Treasury note was 4.442%, while 2-year notes were yielding 4.276%.