Wall Street's main stock indexes edged up in choppy trading on Monday as investors focused on comments from Federal Reserve policymakers and factory activity data following the U.S. central bank's decision to begin easing monetary policy.
In recent trading, the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 16 points to 42,079. The index closed at a record high of 42,063.36 on Friday.
The S&P 500 rose 0.3%, while the Nasdaq added 0.4%. The S&P 500 has been rising for most of this year and is within striking distance of an all-time high, while the blue-chip Dow hit an intraday high of 42,190.05.
The Fed's key monetary policy moves last week helped drive a monthly gain for major stock indexes, bucking a historical trend of September being a weaker month for stocks on average.
Among interest-sensitive growth stocks, Tesla rose 3.6%, Meta rose 1.2%, while Apple fell 0.5%.
The Russell 2000 index, which tracks small-cap stocks, rose 0.2%.
Comments from several policymakers were a major focus for the day as investors searched for clues as to why the central bank kicked off an easing cycle with a steep 50 basis point rate cut.
Atlanta Fed President and voting member Raphael Bostic said inflation and unemployment are approaching normal levels and signaled an openness to quicker rate cuts in the future, while Minneapolis Fed President Neel Kashkari has reportedly been eyeing another 50 basis points of rate cuts by the end of the year.
Traders, CME Group's FedWatch ToolThe Fed had initially expected a bigger move at its November meeting after Governor Christopher Waller warned Friday that upcoming inflation readings could fall below the Fed's 2% target.
But with markets expecting a total of 74.3bps of rate cuts by the end of the year, according to LSEG data, the bet is now something of a coin toss.
“The market is expecting a lot more than the Fed is going to deliver, so that's going to make the market volatile,” said Phil Brancato, CEO of Ladenburg Thalmann Asset Management.
“We're seeing a bit of a lull in the frenzy from last week. Other than the Fed taking more aggressive action than expected, there are no real economic factors spooking the market right now.”
On the data front, preliminary surveys showed manufacturing and services activity rose to 47 and 55.4 respectively in September, beating expectations of 48.5 and 55.2.
But the focus will be on August's personal consumption expenditures figure, the Fed's preferred inflation gauge, due on Friday.
Among the top gainers, Intel rose 2.3 percent after reports that Apollo had proposed investing up to $5 billion in the company.
General Motors shares fell 3.2% after Bernstein downgraded the automaker's stock rating to “market perform” from “outperform.”
