S&P 500 ekes out record closing high; declines briefly after Powell

The S&P 500 sputtered to a record high close on Monday, rebounding from a brief setback after Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell said the US central bank is in no hurry to implement further interest rate cuts.

The Dow also posted an all-time closing high. The three major US stock indexes registered gains for the quarter and for the month.

Powell, at a National Association for Business Economics conference in Nashville, Tennessee, said he sees two more rate cuts, totaling 50 basis points, this year as a baseline if the economy evolves as expected.

“The majority of investors think all of the Fed’s activities are baked in for the remainder of the year. (But) I think there’s more to 2024 Fed than maybe we know about,” said Jake Dollarhide, chief executive officer of Longbow Asset Management in Tulsa, Oklahoma.

“In fact, the soft landing could actually happen.”

The Fed earlier this month began a new easing cycle with a large 50 basis point rate cut.

Traders are pricing in a 35% chance of a 50 basis point reduction in November, down from around 37% before Powell’s speech and 53% on Friday, the CME Group’s FedWatch Tool showed.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 17.15 points, or 0.04%, to 42,330.15. The S&P 500 gained 24.31 points, or 0.42%, at 5,762.48 and the Nasdaq Composite advanced 69.58 points, or 0.38%, to 18,189.17.

For the month, the S&P 500 gained 2% and posted its best September since 2013 and a fifth straight month of increases. For the quarter, the S&P 500 rose 5.5%, the Nasdaq gained 2.6% and the Dow climbed 8.2%.

The S&P 500 extended losses following Powell’s remarks but recovered heading into the close. Strategists said quarter-end activity could have also helped the market late in the day.

“You’ve got momentum trading and classic window dressing at the end of the quarter, where you’re buying the winners and selling the losers,” Dollarhide said.

Quincy Krosby, chief global strategist at LPL Financial in Charlotte, North Carolina, noted that the Fed will have much more data to review before its November meeting.

Key economic reports due this week include jobless claims and monthly payrolls.

CVS Health CVS.N rose 2.4% after a report showed hedge fund Glenview Capital Management will meet top executives at the healthcare company to propose ways to improve operations.

Advancing issues outnumbered decliners on the NYSE by a 1.06-to-1 ratio; on Nasdaq, a 1.00-to-1 ratio favored advancers.

The S&P 500 posted 30 new 52-week highs and two new lows; the Nasdaq Composite recorded 82 new highs and 88 new lows.

Volume on US exchanges was 12.64 billion shares, compared with the 11.93 billion average for the full session over the last 20 trading days.

(Additional reporting by Johann M Cherian and Purvi Agarwal in Bengaluru; Editing by Maju Samuel, Richard Chang, and Andrea Ricci)