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As on : 18-Sep-2024

Market Commentary - Foreign Markets
18-Sep-2024 09:42

US stocks muted ahead of Fed rate decision

Stocks in the US gave back ground over the course of the trading day on Tuesday. The Dow and the S&P 500 reached new record intraday highs in early trading but subsequently pulled back near the unchanged line. The major averages on the Wall Street ended the day narrowly mixed. While the Dow edged down 15.90 points or less than a tenth of a percent to 41,606.18, the S&P 500 inched up 1.49 points or less than a tenth of a percent to 5,634.58 and the Nasdaq rose 35.93 points or 0.2 percent to 17,628.06.

Nvidia fell 1.1%, while Microsoft was up 0.9% after the company raised its quarterly dividend. Intel rose 2.6% following the chipmaker's new business partnership with Amazon. Meanwhile, data from US yesterday showed retail sales grew by 0.1% in August, reaching $710.8 billion. This followed a 1.1% rise in July and surpassed market predictions, which had anticipated a 0.2% decline. However, excluding automobile sales, Retail Sales increased by 0.1%, falling short of the expected 0.2% growth.

US treasuries showed a modest move back to the downside ahead of the Fed announcement. The Federal Reserve's monetary policy decision and accompanying statement is likely to be in the spotlight on Wednesday. Subsequently, the yield on the benchmark ten-year note, which moves opposite of its price, rose 2.1 basis points to 3.642 percent.

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