Stock market today: Wall Street hangs near its record high as the bond market calms
Business
Stock market today: Wall Street hangs near its record high as the bond market calms
NEW YORK (AP) — Wall Street was mixed early Tuesday as corporate earnings stream in and hopes dwindle for a March interest rate cut.
Futures for the S&P 500 ticked up less than 0.1% before the bell, while futures for the Dow Jones Industrial Average shed less than 0.1%.
It’s becoming more accepted that the Federal Reserve won’t be cutting interest rates until spring and maybe even summer. Recent data has confirmed that the U.S. economy remains strong, despite the Fed’s effort to cool it off with interest rate hikes meant to curb inflation.
A report Monday showed that U.S. services industries are growing faster than expected. The Institute for Supply Management’s report followed Friday’s blowout jobs report, which reflected a still-strong labor market, despite mounting layoffs.
Some traders are now betting that Fed’s projected interest rate cuts will be pushed back to June instead of May, according to data from CME Group.
In equities trading, Tesla continued its slide, falling more than 2% in premarket. Elon Musk’s electric car company has lost more than a quarter of its value in the first five weeks of 2024 as recalls mount and doubt on Wall Street grow about the Tesla’s future earnings potential.
FMC tumbled 14% in premarket after the Philadelphia chemical maker’s sales and profit fell short of Wall Street expectations. FMC’s results helped drag much of the sector down.
Streaming music and podcast platform Spotify jumped more than 6% after it reported stronger-than-expected growth in its subscriber base, even as revenue missed analyst targets.
With earnings season at about the midway point, there are still plenty of heavyweights reporting this week including CVS Health, The Walt Disney Co. and PepsiCo.
Elsewhere, Chinese markets bounced back after a state investment fund said it would step up stock purchases and a report said leader Xi Jinping was set to meet with officials to discuss the markets.
Bloomberg reported that Xi was to be briefed by officials about the markets, underscoring the ruling Communist Party’s concern over a slump that has wiped out trillions of dollars in market value over the past several years. Citing unnamed officials, the report said the timing of the briefing was uncertain. It could not be confirmed.
