Wall Street mixed ahead of Powell’s comments; Dow hits record high

NEW YORK: Wall Street’s main indexes were mixed on Tuesday, with the Dow and the S&P 500 hitting record highs, as investors looked to Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell for clues on the rate-cut trajectory.

Powell’s comments could be crucial to shaping expectations at a time when equities have been propelled by the rate cut last week. Investors are hoping for further reductions to sustain the rally that has allowed Wall Street to scale new highs in September, defying historical trends.

But the path for further cuts remains unclear. Chicago Fed President Austan Goolsbee in an interview with CNBC advocated a little caution to prevent reigniting inflation.

Separately, Fed Vice Chair for Supervision Michelle Bowman said the bank could have to speed up the pace of cuts if businesses begin to lay off workers.

“A tug of war is developing as investors expect the Fed to move more aggressively than what officials signaled with the dot plots,” wrote Jeffrey Roach, chief economist at LPL Financial.

“The gap between official guidance and market pricing underscores the uncertainty surrounding monetary policy in the coming years and highlights the risk of volatility if either side is proven wrong.”

At 11:32 a.m. ET, the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 140.45 points, or 0.30 percent, to 46,520.41, the S&P 500 lost 6.68 points, or 0.10 percent, to 6,687.07 and the Nasdaq Composite lost 65.26 points, or 0.29 percent, to 22,723.72.

Gains in Boeing and banks such as Goldman Sachs and JPMorgan boosted the Dow to hit an intraday record.

Boeing gained 2.1 percent after securing an order from Uzbekistan Airways worth over USD8 billion, while talks for a Chinese order were ongoing.

The S&P 500 financials sector hit a record high and was last up 0.6 percent, while energy companies rose 2.6 percent. The gains helped the S&P 500, which hit an intraday all-time high before giving up gains.

Losses in Nvidia, which slipped 1.9 percent after hitting a record high in the previous session, and Amazon.com, which dipped 1.7 percent, weighed on the Nasdaq. Technology stocks fell 0.5 percent on the S&P 500.

Consumer discretionary stocks fell 0.7 percent, with AutoZone the biggest laggard, down 2.9 percent, after its fourth-quarter profit missed estimates.

A September reading of S&P Global’s flash manufacturing PMI fell to 52 from 53 in August.

During the past 40 years, the S&P 500 has generated a 15 percent median 12-month return when the Fed resumed cutting rates against a backdrop of continued economic growth.

However, uncertainty around the Trump administration’s policy continues to pose risks. Kenvue, the maker of popular pain medication Tylenol, rose 3.2 percent but is yet to fully recover from a 7.5 percent plunge on Monday when the US president linked autism to childhood vaccine use and the taking of Tylenol by women when pregnant.

Advancing issues outnumbered decliners by a 1.96-to-1 ratio on the NYSE and by a 1.5-to-1 ratio on the Nasdaq.

The S&P 500 posted 42 new 52-week highs and 11 new lows, while the Nasdaq Composite recorded 133 new highs and 34 new lows.