(Bloomberg) -- U.S. stocks held steady, with equities trading near record highs, as investors weighed the likelihood of an interest rate increase next month by the Federal Reserve and interpreted a series of tweets from the President.
The S&P 500 Index lost 0.3 percent to 2,406 at 10 a.m. in New York, while the Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 61 points to 20.972. The S&P 500 closed 0.1 percent lower Tuesday from a record close the previous session, as markets reopened after the long weekend.
- Health-care shares leading in early trading, up 0.6% on gains in all but seven stocks in the 60-member index
- Novartis AG Chief Executive Officer Joe Jimenez said he expects President Donald Trump's administration to outline proposals to lower the burden of drug prices on patients within three months
- Real estate, staples and utilities trade higher
- Financial shares down 0.9% for third straight session of losses
- 10-year Treasury yield unchanged
- Volume in S&P 500 8.5% below 30-day average; elevated trading in energy and financial stocks
- VIX up to 10.5
- POLITICS:
- President Donald Trump's former national security adviser, Michael Flynn, agreed Tuesday to turn over a limited number of documents sought by the Senate Intelligence Committee for its investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election
- President Trump tweeted that he will announce a decision on the Paris Climate Accord “over the next few days”
- ECONOMY:
- Federal Reserve Governor Lael Brainard said Tuesday that soft inflation could cause her to reassess the path forward for monetary policy should it linger
- Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas President Robert Kaplan says slack is coming out of the labor market and that should ultimately boost inflation
- Fed policy makers lifted rates in March and have penciled in two more rate increases in 2017, with traders are pricing in about 91% odds the next comes in June, Fed fund futures show
- EARNINGS:
- After-market Wednesday: Hewlett Packard (HPE)
- Pre-market Thursday: Dollar General (DG)
- Banks Fall as JPMorgan, BofA Executives Talk About Lower Rev.
- Apple Casts Aside ‘Curse of the Dow' by Beating Average: Chart
- Trump Trade's So Dead You May as Well Buy It, Says Citigroup
For more equity market news:
To contact the reporter on this story: Oliver Renick in New York at orenick2@bloomberg.net.
To contact the editors responsible for this story: Steven Fromm at sfromm@bloomberg.net, Chris Nagi at chrisnagi@bloomberg.net.
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