Wall Street drifts ahead of the final Federal Reserve meeting of the year
Stocks drifted in morning trading Monday on Wall Street ahead of the Federal Reserve’s last meeting of the year.
The Standard & Poor’s 500 flitted between small gains and losses. The benchmark index hit its highest level in 20 months on Friday. The Dow Jones industrial average rose 31 points, or 0.1%, to 36,282 as of 10:02 a.m. Eastern. The Nasdaq composite fell 0.3%.
Macy’s jumped 16.4% following reports that an investor group is launching a bid to take the storied retailer private for $5.8 billion.
Treasury yields edged higher. The yield on the 10-year Treasury rose to 4.26% from 4.23% late Friday.
Crude oil prices were stable.
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Markets in Asia were mostly higher, while markets in Europe were mixed.
Wall Street’s big focus this week will be updates on inflation at the consumer and wholesale levels, along with the Fed’s latest update on its interest rate policy.
On Tuesday, the government will release its November report on consumer inflation. Analysts expect the report to show that inflation continued slowing to 3.1% from 3.2% in October. On Wednesday, the government will release its November report on inflation at the wholesale level, which is also expected to show that the rate of inflation is easing.
The updated inflation data comes ahead of the Fed’s latest update and statement on interest rates Wednesday afternoon. The central bank is expected to hold its benchmark rate steady for a third consecutive time after spending much of 2022 and a large portion of 2023 aggressively raising rates.
