A specialist trader works at his post on the floor at the New York Stock Exchange.
Brendan McDermid | Reuters
The Nasdaq Composite rose to a record, aided by a rally in tech, as investors awaited the Federal Reserve’s policy meeting.
The tech-heavy index gained 1.24% to 20,173.89, while the S&P 500 added 0.38%, closing at 6,074.08. The Dow Jones Industrial Average underperformed, losing 110.58 points, or 0.25%, to end at 43,717.48. The 30-stock Dow fell for an eighth day, marking its longest run of losses since 2018.
Shares of Apple, Google-parent Alphabet, electric car maker Tesla and AI-chipmaker Broadcom all rallied to fresh all-time highs. Broadcom, which topped a $1 trillion market value for the first time last week, led the Nasdaq higher with a gain of 11%. The tech and consumer discretionary sectors of the S&P 500 also closed at records.
Bucking the upward trend was artificial intelligence chipmaker Nvidia, the market favorite that led stocks higher the past two years. The stock pulled back 1.7% and fell into a correction, off more than 10% from its recent all-time high in November.
The move higher in stocks came as the Fed was set to begin a two-day policy meeting on Tuesday. The central bank is widely expected to cut its benchmark overnight lending rate another quarter point at the conclusion of the meeting on Wednesday. The key for investors will be forward guidance on future policy moves after the Fed began easing policy in September for the first time in four years.
“While it’s easy to make a big deal about every single FOMC decision and press conference, this final one of 2024 may be the most intriguing,” said Jay Woods, chief global strategist at Freedom Capital Markets.
“Since the first cut in September, unemployment numbers have stabilized,” he added. “However, the inflation numbers have ticked the other way ever so slightly. In fact, they have gone up each month since cuts began. Is this just ‘sticky’ or the start of a new trend?”
The stock market is coming off a sluggish week, when the Dow fell 1.8%. The S&P 500 dipped 0.6% last week, and had retreated in four of the past five sessions before Monday. As if to foreshadow Monday’s all-time high, the Nasdaq outperformed last week, grinding out a gain of 0.3%.
