US Stock Markets Today: Dow Jones Up 200 Points In Early Trade On Fed Rate-Cut Bets

The Dow Jones Industrial Average jumped around 200 points minutes into the trade, as the market factored in a likely rate cut by the US Federal Reserve on Wednesday.

The wider index, S&P 500, was trading 0.04% up at 6,609.32, but later ticked 0.10% lower; whereas Nasdaq Composite edged 0.17% or 50.77 points lower at 22,287.23.

The volatility in the first half of trade came as investors kept a keen watch on the US Federal Reserve meeting's results.

"Powell is between a rock and a hard place. The Fed will ease today. Odds for 50 basis points are minimal. Three cuts of 25 basis points make sense to us and the market agrees with us at this moment. There are those that think the Fed should move 50 today and will be disappointed", Andrew Brenner from NatAlliance Securities told Bloomberg.

Ahead of the meeting, giants like Tesla Inc., Nvidia Corp., Oracle Corp., and Intel Corp. were trading lower. Nvidia was among the top decliners and edged 2.09 lower to trade at $171.23, while shares of Tesla traded 1.56% or 6.57 points lower at $415.05, and oracle's stock dipped 1.79% or 5.48 points to $301.17. Intel's share price declined 1.23% or 0.31 points to $24.96.

On the other hand, eighth of the 11 sectoral indices were trading in the green with the consumer staples sector leading the gains. Only Information Technology, Communication Services, and Consumer Discretionary Sector were trading in the red with the Information Technology sector being the biggest decliner.

As the US market opened, spot gold was trading 0.18% lower at $3,683.31 an ounce. Crude oil prices traded little changed at $68.49.

As the markets opened, the Bloomberg Dollar Spot Index was little changed while the euro fell 0.2% to $1.1848. The British pound was little changed at $1.3651 and the Japanese yen rose 0.1% to 146.32 per dollar.

Bitcoin, the largest traded cryptocurrency, fell 0.5% to $116,254.17.