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Wall Street Pauses as Fed Meeting Looms: Futures Hold Steady

U.S. stock futures were little changed on Tuesday as investors awaited the start of the Federal Reserve’s final policy meeting of the year. The Dow Jones Industrial Average, S&P 500, and Nasdaq futures all hovered near flat, reflecting a cautious mood across Wall Street. The Fed is widely expected to keep interest rates unchanged, but traders are focused on Chair Jerome Powell’s comments and the central bank’s updated economic projections. Markets are looking for clues on when rate cuts might begin in 2024, with inflation cooling but still above the Fed’s long-term target. Recent gains in equities have been fueled by optimism that the Fed’s tightening cycle is over, yet uncertainty remains about how quickly monetary policy will shift toward easing. Until then, investors appear content to hold their positions, waiting for clearer signals from the Fed before making bold moves.

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Wall Street Ends Week With Small Gain, But Big Loss


The US stock indexes closed slightly higher on Friday, but it was not enough to prevent the S&P 500 and Nasdaq Composite from having their worst weekly performance in months. The uncertainty over interest rate cuts has been cited as a major factor in the decline.

The economic data releases offered contrasting views on the state of the US economy: a robust jobs report from the Labor Department, which showed US employers hired more workers than expected in December, and a weak services sector survey from the ISM (,Institute for Supply Management) which showed activity in the services sector fell in December.

Some individual stocks had notable movements on Friday, such as Peloton (up on a TikTok deal) and Palantir (down on a Jefferies report).


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