Nasdaq hits record high as Wall Street drifts ahead of Fed meeting

NEW YORK (AP) — U.S. stock indexes drifted in mixed trading on Monday, ahead of next week Federal Reserve Board meeting It could determine the direction of Wall Street next year.

The Standard & Poor’s 500 index rose 0.4%, falling from… Losing first week in the final four. The Nasdaq Composite Index rose 1.2% to a record high, while the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 110 points, or 0.3%.

Broadcom stock jumped 11.2% to help lead the S&P 500 for the second day in a row after reporting earnings last week that beat analysts’ expectations. The technology company is enjoying a wave of enthusiasm about its offerings in artificial intelligence in particular.

However, the main market event will arrive on Wednesday when the Federal Reserve announces its final move on interest rates for the year. Widespread expectations are that he will cut the key interest rate for a third successive time, as he tries to shore up a sluggish labor market after cutting inflation to his 2% target.

The question is how far it will cut interest rates next year, and Fed officials will issue projections on where they expect the federal funds rate to end up in 2025, along with other economic indicators, once they conclude their meeting. Fed Chairman Jerome Powell will also answer questions in a press conference following the meeting.

Right now, the general expectation among traders is that the Fed may cut interest rates a few more times in 2025, according to data from CME Group. But such expectations have diminished Reports Which suggests that inflation may be more difficult to reach 2% from here. Besides the slight acceleration in inflation last month, another concern is that President-elect Donald Trump’s preferences for tariffs and other policies could lead to higher inflation in the future.

For example, David Merkel, an economist at Goldman Sachs, abandoned his previous forecast of a Fed cut in January. Beyond the possibility of tariffs, he said Fed officials may also want to slow their cuts due to uncertainty about exactly how low interest rates will go so they no longer put pressure on the economy.

Expectations of a series of interest rate cuts by the Federal Reserve was one of the main reasons the S&P 500 index reached an all-time high. 57 times so far this year And he heads towards one of them The best years of the millennium. The economy has held up better than many feared, continuing to grow even after the Federal Reserve raised the federal funds rate to its highest level in two decades in hopes of curbing inflation, which topped 9% two summers ago.

On Wall Street, MicroStrategy jumped as much as 7% on the day as it continued to benefit from Bitcoin price risewhich hit another all-time high. But its stock ended the day down less than 0.1% after Bitcoin fell below $106,000 after hitting a record high above $107,700, according to CoinDesk.

The story continues