Stock market today: Indexes traded mixed as investors await fresh inflation data
TIMOTHY A. CLARY/AFP via Getty Images
- US stocks were mixed Wednesday as investors awaited key the Fed's preferred inflation data.
- Core PCE inflation is expected to show prices rose 2.8% last month.
- Fed meeting minutes released Tuesday show that the central bank sees gradual policy easing ahead.
US stocks traded mixed Wednesday as investors headed into the Thanksgiving holiday, bracing for the latest personal consumption expenditures price data.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average ticked slightly higher, adding to records notched in the previous session. The S&P 500 and the Nasdaq Composite dipped, and bond yields slumped, with the 10-year Treasury yield down four basis points to 4.256%.
Investors have their eye on the Federal Reserve's preferred inflation gauge, due out at 10 a.m. ET. Economists expect core PCE to be up 2.8% year-over-year in October. That would represent a slightly hotter pace of inflation compared to last month when core PCE rose 2.7%.
"This explains why Fed Chair Jerome Powell said that the central bank is in no hurry to cut rates further," David Morrison, a senior market analyst at Trade Nation, wrote in a note.
Markets are still digesting details from the minutes of the Fed's last policy meeting. Central bankers suggested they would continue "gradually" cutting interest rates, with some officials saying it could take longer than expected for inflation to fall to the Fed's 2% target.
"When they met in early November, officials remained focused on moving the Fed funds rate to neutral — a theoretical level of interest rates that neither boosts nor restricts economic activity," Art Hogan, the chief market strategist at B. Riley Wealth, said. "That could mean a slower path of rate cuts ahead of policymakers feel it out."
Traders, meanwhile, have been dialing back bets on further easing next year. Most investors are expecting the Fed to trim rates another 25 basis points at the December policy meeting, but odds of another rate cut in January have dropped to 14%, down from 51% a month ago, according to the CME FedWatch tool.
Here's where US indexes stood shortly after the 9:30 a.m. opening bell on Wednesday:
- S&P 500: 6,013.20, down 0.14%
- Dow Jones Industrial Average: 44,944.89, up 0.19% (+84.58 points)
- Nasdaq composite: 19,100.43, down 0.39%
Here's what else is going on today:
- Here's why bitcoin stopped short of $100,000 — and when it might get there.
- The S&P 500 could rocket another 17% in 2025 as risk appetite improves, according to Deutsche Bank.
- Wells Fargo thinks there's one area of the market investors should avoid next year.
- NFL legend Rob Gronkowski said he turned $69,000 into $600,000 buying Apple stock a decade ago.
In commodities, bonds, and crypto:
- West Texas Intermediate crude oil ticked higher by 0.17% to $68.88 a barrel. Brent crude, the international benchmark, rose 0.15% to $72.43 a barrel.
- Gold was higher by 0.67% to $2,650.43 per ounce.
- The 10-year Treasury yield dropped five basis points to 4.246%.
- Bitcoin rose 2.38% to $94,461.