Nasdaq Shows Pessimism On Rate Cut; Closes In Red, Dow Jones & S&P 500 Shutters With Marginal Gains

The Dow Jones Industrial Average set a record after a quiet Monday of trading, as Wall Street geared up for the most anticipated meeting of the Federal Reserve in years.

The Dow rose 228 points, or 0.6 per cent, to surpass its prior all-time high set a few weeks ago. The S&P 500 index, which is much more comprehensive and widely followed on Wall Street, ticked up by 0.1 per cent to climb within 0.6 per cent of its own record set in July.

The Nasdaq composite slipped 0.5 per cent as big technology stocks and other market superstars gave back a bit of their big gains from recent years.

The tech heavy index includes all magnificent seven tech stocks, such as Apple, Microsoft, Amazon, Alphabet (Google), Meta Platforms (Facebook), Nvidia, and Tesla. These tech stocks have been marking new life-high levels every fortnight, making the Nasdaw Composite Index soar to record all time high-levels.

That peak rally of underlying stocks, including the magnificent seven in index, has now started to subside.

The Nasdaq Composite opened at 17,573.70 points with movements in negative territory.The index touched a day high of 17,618.40 on the US bourses. The closing bell on the index shuttered at 17,592.13 points.

At 5,633.09, the S&P 500 gained 7.07 points. The Nasdaq composite dropped 91.85 to 17,592.13, while the Dow gained 228.30 to 41,622.08.

Economy relief by rate cut

The only concern is the extent to which the Fed will relieve the economy. A larger-than-usual move of half a percentage point is drawing more bets from traders.

The probability that the Fed will exceed the customary reduction of a quarter of a percentage point is predicted to be 63 per cent. It was only 30 per cent a week ago and 50 per cent on Friday.

The goal of the Federal Reserve's two-decade high main interest rate policy has been to slow the economy down sufficiently to contain high inflation.

The Federal Reserve has stated that it can shift its attention to supporting the slowing job market and economy now that inflation has significantly decreased from its peak two summers ago. According to some critics, it might be moving too slowly, which raises the possibility of a recession.