Stocks close lower, Dow sheds more than 250 points to snap six-day win streak

Stocks traded lower Monday, pausing a January rally as investors braced for the busiest week of earnings season and a possible interest rate hike from the Federal Reserve.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average declined 260.99 points, or 0.77%, to 33,717.09. The S&P 500 fell 1.3% to 4,017.77. The Nasdaq Composite dropped by 1.96% to 11,393.81.

Information technology and communication services were among the biggest laggards in the S&P 500. Mega-cap tech stocks such as Meta Platforms and Alphabet were about 3% and 2.5% lower, respectively. Semiconductor stock Advanced Micro Devices fell 3.9%.

Elsewhere, Ford shares declined nearly 2.9% after the automaker said it’s cutting prices and ramping up production on its electric Mustang Mach-E crossover, following a similar announcement from Tesla.

Still, the S&P 500 is headed for its best January since 2019 when it gained nearly 8%. The broader market index is up 4.6% for 2023 following a 19% loss last year.

However, there are several tests this week for the 2023 rally. About 20% of the S&P 500 will report earnings this week, including McDonald’s and General Motors on Tuesday. Tech giants Apple, Meta Platforms, Amazon and Alphabet report later in the week.

The Federal Open Market Committee meets on Tuesday and Wednesday, when the Fed is expected to hike rates by one-quarter of a percentage point. Investors will be looking for clues about how much higher the central bank will take rates in the fight against inflation. Traders have pushed stocks higher this year in part because of softer inflation reports, which they suspect could cause the Fed to soon pause its hiking campaign.

“You’re seeing this push and pull in stock prices between whether the Fed will keep interest rates where they are throughout the year, or whether they’ll pivot to cutting interest rates. That’s what you’re seeing in terms of maybe a little bit more of the intermediate term rise in stock prices,” said Tom Hainlin, senior investment strategist at U.S. Bank.

“We would fade that rally because our perspective is the Fed is going to keep interest rates high for some time,” Hainlin added.

Source: https://www.cnbc.com/2023/01/29/stock-market-news-live-updates-futures-open-to-close.html