Wall Street ends lower as investors turn cautious ahead of Fed rate decision

Wall Street’s three main stock indexes ended lower in choppy trading on Tuesday as caution set in ahead of an anticipated interest rate cut from the Federal Reserve.

Investors are largely still pricing in a 25 basis-point cut from the US central bank at the conclusion of its two-day meeting on Wednesday, to offset the deterioration in the US labor market, evidenced by numerous recent economic indicators.

Data on Tuesday showed that US retail sales increased more than expected in August, but that did little to change rate cut expectations.

“Any kind of resilient economic data will only reaffirm the hawks on the FOMC … and could give a little bit of fuel for (Fed Chair Jerome) Powell to come out as slightly more hawkish than the market is hoping for,” said Ross Mayfield, investment strategist at Baird Private Wealth Management.

Investors also brushed off news that the US Senate confirmed White House economic adviser Stephen Miran to the Fed Board and an appeals court rejected President Donald Trump’s bid to fire Fed Governor Lisa Cook.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 125.55 points, or 0.27%, to 45,757.90, the S&P 500 lost 8.52 points, or 0.13%, to 6,606.76 and the Nasdaq Composite lost 14.79 points, or 0.07%, to 22,333.96.

Six of the 11 S&P 500 subsectors ended lower. The utilities and real estate sectors fell 1.81% and 0.66%, respectively.

The CBOE Volatility Index climbed to its highest level in more than a week to 16.04 points.

UnitedHealth Group shares fell 2.3% and Nvidia shares dropped 1.6%, weighing on the Dow. Nvidia shares fell after Reuters reported weak demand in China for its new AI chip.

The S&P 500 and the Nasdaq closed at all-time highs on Monday after hitting intraday records in multiple sessions. The three main indexes had gained so far in September – a month traditionally deemed bad for US equities.

Webtoon Entertainment soared 39% after a deal with Disney to create a new digital comics platform to feature content from Disney’s portfolio, including the Marvel and “Star Wars” franchises.

Oracle rose 1.5% after Trump said that the US and China have a deal that will keep the short-video app TikTok operating in the US and multiple news outlets, citing sources, said Oracle is part of the investor consortium.

On the Nasdaq, advancing issues outnumbered decliners by a 1.01-to-1 ratio. Declining issues outnumbered advancers by a 1.07-to-1 ratio on the NYSE.

The S&P 500 posted 15 new 52-week highs and 13 new lows while the Nasdaq Composite recorded 89 new highs and 58 new lows.

Volume on US exchanges was 17.11 billion shares, compared with the 16.31 billion average for the full session over the last 20 trading days.

(Reporting by Abigail Summerville in New York and Purvi Agarwal and Sukriti Gupta in Bengaluru; Editing by Maju Samuel and Matthew Lewis)