Wall Street’s main stock indexes dipped in choppy trading on Tuesday in the run-up to the Federal Reserve’s monetary policy meeting, while investors assessed the latest batch of earnings reports and parsed through more economic data.
Nvidia (NVDA.O) was a big drag, down 3.7% after a report said U.S. curbs could force the chip designer to cancel billions of dollars of orders to China.
Other major growth stocks such as Meta Platforms (META.O) and Microsoft (MSFT.O) fell between 0.4% and 1%.
Six of the 11 major S&P 500 sectors were trading lower, with information technology (.SPLRCT) leading losses.
On the earnings front, heavy-machinery maker Caterpillar (CAT.N) fell 6.3% as the company’s dealer inventories rose and a large order backlog shrank, indicating that equipment demand is starting to slow. Drugmaker Amgen(AMGN.O) slipped 4.3% after reporting third-quarter results.
Pfizer’s shares (PFE.N) fell 1.5% after the drugmaker reported its first quarterly loss since 2019.
An October reading of Chicago PMI came in at 44 against expectations of 45, while a separate reading showed U.S. labor costs increased solidly in the third quarter.
“The slightly stronger increase in the employment cost index in the third quarter is another sign that the earlier rapid easing in labour market conditions may be fading,” said Andrew Hunter, deputy chief U.S. economist at Capital Economics.
“But the forward-looking evidence still suggests wage growth will slow further over the coming months.”
U.S. equities are tracking their third straight month in the red, with the S&P 500 (.SPX) and the Nasdaq (.IXIC) on course for their worst October since 2018.
The Fed kicks off a two-day monetary policy meeting on Tuesday. At the end of the meet the central bank is widely expected to hold interest rates steady, according to the CME Group’s FedWatch tool.
The Fed’s commentary on Wednesday would be crucial in assessing how long monetary policy could stay restrictive amid recent signs of economic strength.
