Dow drops more than 200 points as Fed policy meeting kicks off: Live updates – CNBC

Confidence among small business owners reached its highest level this year in May, even though business owners remain concerned about inflation and plan to continue raising prices, according to a survey released Tuesday by the National Federation of Independent Business.

of Small Business Optimism Index The employment index for the month was 90.5, up 0.8 percentage points from April and slightly above the Dow Jones forecast of 89.9. A net 15% of companies said they planned to hire, also the highest level this year. A net 28% said they would raise prices, up 2 percentage points from the previous month. Six percent of companies cited financing as their biggest problem, the highest level since June 2010.

The index has now fallen for 29 consecutive months, below its long-term average of 98. The NFIB Uncertainty Index also hit its highest level since November 2020.

Jeff Cox

Below are the stocks with the biggest moves before the close:

See the full list of stocks here.

Samantha Sabin

Barclays believes there is room for stocks to rise if the current market rally extends.

“We believe the April sell-off has reset long positions and the stock has seen improved fundamentals following the release of Q1 2024 earnings,” the bank wrote in a recent note. “Against this backdrop, we believe the stock is likely to continue to trade higher.”

Meanwhile, overweighting in technology assets has reached record levels, strategist Venu Krishna added.

— Lisa Kailai Han

Tesla CEO Elon Musk on Monday threatened to ban the use of OpenAI in his company’s products after the iPhone maker announced it had signed a deal with the company.

“If Apple integrates OpenAI at the OS level, Apple devices would be banned at my company. It would be an unacceptable security breach,” Musk said in the X post.

Apple told CNBC that it uses its own AI, adding that the integration with OpenAI is an optional feature.

Apple shares were down slightly in morning trading. Tesla shares were flat.

— Fred Imbert and Ashley Caputo

The S&P 500 is still more than 12% above its 200-day moving average, a level that historically has not remained above for long, according to BTIG.

This figure is calculated from the average closing price of the S&P 500 over the past 200 sessions. A broad index trading above this level is generally considered to be in an uptrend.

Currently, the S&P 500 is well above its 200-day average, so theoretically, the S&P 500 could pull back without falling below this key level. The S&P 500 closed at a new record on Monday, bringing its year-to-date gains to 12.4%.

“While this is not a sell signal in and of itself, historically the stock has not spent much time above this level,” chief market technologist Jonathan Krinsky told clients. “We remain tactically cautious here while opportunistically exploring individual stock ideas.”

Alex Harring

Information technology stock DXC Technology rose nearly 4 percent in after-hours trading after Reuters reported a joint takeover bid by Apollo Global and Kindrill Holdings.

The two companies are reportedly considering offering $22 to $25 a share for DXC, according to Reuters. Apollo shares were little changed in after-hours trading, while Kindrill was down more than 1 percent.

Alex Harring

Stock futures were roughly flat just after 6 p.m. ET.

Dow futures were down nearly 0.1%, while S&P 500 and Nasdaq 100 futures traded just below flat.

Alex Harring