Stock Market Today: S&P 500 ends higher as Fed speak pushback fails to cool rally
Investing.com — The S&P 500 closed higher Monday, shrugging off attempts from Federal Reserve officials to cool expectations for sooner rather than later rate cuts.
By 16:00 ET (21:00 GMT), the Dow Jones Industrial Average was flat, the NASDAQ Composite climbed 0.61%, and the the S&P 500 index rose 0.5%.
The gains in the S&P 500 on Monday took it to within 1.2% of its record closing high of 4,796.56 seen in January 2022.
Chicago Fed President Austan Goolsbee said earlier Monday he was «confused» with how the market reacted in the wake of last week's Fed meeting, adding that Fed members «don't debate specific policies speculatively about the future.»
Fed President Loretta Mester, meanwhile, also attempted to push back, saying that the Fed's next policy phase isn't «when to reduce rates… It's about how long do we need monetary policy to remain restrictive in order to be assured that inflation is on that sustainable and timely path back to 2%.»
The comments echoed those of New York Fed President John Williams late last week, who stated that policymakers were not «really talking about» interest rate cuts «right now.»
Rate-cut expectations were given a major boost last week after Fed Chairman Jerome Powell said last week that the discussion of rate cuts had «come into view.»
Just a month after setting a 2024 target for the S&P 500, {{0|Goldman Sachs upgraded its year-end forecast on the S&P 500 to 5,100, citing the Federal Reserve’s dovish pivot last week, lower consumer prices, and expectations for a decline in real yields.
Apple, which closed a record high on Friday, turned lower Monday after the tech giant said it would pause sales of its Apple Watch following a long-running patent dispute with Masimo (NASDAQ:MASI)
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