US mid-day: Wall Street lower for third straight day
By Joseph Toppe
17:45, 15 December 2021
The market is lower in early trading on Wednesday as the US Federal Reserve’s policy meeting gets underway.
Halfway through the session, the Dow Jones Industrial Average slipped nearly 121 points, or 0.3%, the S&P 500 went around 0.3% lower, while the Nasdaq Composite lost almost 0.7%.
At the close of yesterday’s trading, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 106.77 points, 0.3%, the S&P 500 was off more than 35 points, or 0.75%, while the Nasdaq Composite dipped over 175 points, or 1.14%.
Federal Reserve meets today
The Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) meeting is the key market event of the day.
Investors will be paying particular attention to how much the US Federal Reserve will slow monthly asset purchases (tapering) from the current pace of $15bn (£11.3bn) monthly, as well as how the members' estimates for the interest rate-hike cycle (dot-chart) and economic projections in the coming years have evolved.
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Winners and losers: Tech stocks fall again
In early trading, shares of Occidental Petroleum are off around 4%, while shares for Eli Lilly went up near 7%, leading the S&P 500 in gains on Wednesday.
In other energy stocks, shares of Baker Hughes have fallen a little more than 4%, while shares of Chevron are approximately 1.02% off and shares of Exxon Mobil are almost 1.2% behind.
Shares of Boeing are down around 2.3%, helping to drag the blue-chip Dow lower.
In tech stocks, shares of Meta Platforms are down around 2.19%, shares of Amazon are down nearly 2.24%, while shares of Apple are around 1.10% in decline and shares of Netflix and Alphabet are off by nearly 2.14% and 1.31% respectively.
In the retail industry, shares of Walmart are up around 0.33% as shares of Costco are up around 1.21%.
In apparel, shares of Nike are nearly 1.3% in the red.
Oil: Crude prices stay down on Wednesday
Oil futures are down on Wednesday with the global benchmark, Brent crude, leaking 1.2%, as traders predict a faster pullback in Fed stimulus.
Prices dropped on Tuesday following a report from the International Energy Agency stating it will cut its oil demand outlook for next year by 100,000 barrels a day.
Gold: Metal’s midweek woes
Gold futures are on pace for another drop on Wednesday.
February gold dipped $6.10, or 0.3%, to trade at $1,766.20 an ounce, following a 0.9% decline on Tuesday, while March silver lost 31.4 cents, or 1.4%, to $21.61, after it dropped 1.8% yesterday.
Forex: Yields rise as Fed meets
On Wednesday, one US dollar equals 0.76 of the pound sterling, 0.89 of the euro, and 1.29 of the Canadian dollar, holding onto a slight edge from earlier in the week.
The yield on the benchmark 10-year U.S. Treasury note rose to 1.441% Wednesday from 1.437% Tuesday.
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