Stocks closed Tuesday lower, while bond yields climbed to their highest levels in years, as the Federal Reserve’s two-day September meeting got going. Read today’s full markets roundup here.
Shares of Amazon.com, one of the biggest stocks in the market, dragged down indexes with a nearly 2% slide. Walt Disney’s $60 billion spending plan was not well-received: Its stock traded about 3% lower, weighing on the blue-chip Dow.
The lowest number of monthly housing starts since June 2020 raised fears that there won’t be enough supply to take the air out of home prices. Coupled with hotter-than-expected inflation in Canada, the specter of another rate increase later this year is rattling markets, though traders don’t expect a hike tomorrow.
Fresh IPO Instacart rose in its first day of trading, while marketing automation platform Klaviyo was expected to price today. If investors continue to respond warmly to new offerings, the stage could be set for more startups to list their stocks.
Stocks retreated. The S&P 500 fell 0.2%. The Dow and Nasdaq Composite were also in the red, with the former off more than 100 points.
The declines were broad-based. Nine of the S&P 500’s sectors lost ground, led lower by energy and consumer discretionary shares.
Oil stayed elevated. The most actively traded contract for Brent crude futures edged higher to trade at around $95 a barrel before settling a bit lower for the day.
The benchmark 10-year Treasury yield settled at 4.366%, its highest closing level since 2007. The two-year yield settled at around 5.109%, its highest level since 2006.
It’s a bumper week for central banks. Apart from the Fed, decisions are also on tap from the Bank of England, Bank of Japan and Turkey’s central bank.