Stock market today: Trading on Wall Street muted as the end of the year approaches
Premarket trading on Wall Street was mixed on what’s expected to be another quiet day between the Christmas and New Year holidays
Premarket trading is mixed in a low-volume trading holiday week on Wall Street.
Futures for the S&P 500 were virtually unchanged before the bell Thursday, while futures for the Dow Jones Industrial Average lost 0.1%. The tech-heavy Nasdaq rose nearly 0.3%.
Trading has been subdued in the last trading week of the year. The S&P 500 is coming off its eighth straight winning week and is hovering just below its all-time high set in January of 2022.
The final week of 2023 lacks any market-moving U.S. economic updates. Later Thursday, the government releases data on layoffs in its weekly unemployment benefits report.
Overall, investors have been encouraged by financial data showing inflation is on the decline and the economy appears to be stronger than anticipated. The Fed is walking a tightrope, trying to slow the economy enough through higher interest rates to cool inflation, but not so much that it tips the nation into recession.
Recent data raises hopes that the economy can dodge a significant recession. Wall Street is betting that the Fed is done raising interest rates and will likely shift to rate cuts in the new year. The central bank has held rates steady since its meeting in July, and Wall Street expects it to start cutting rates as early as March.
In Europe at midday, Britain’s FTSE 100 inched down 0.1% and Germany's DAX lost 0.2%. The CAC 40 in Paris was down 0.4%.
Tokyo's Nikkei 225 index was an outlier in Asia, shedding 0.4% to 33,539.62. Speculation over whether and when the Bank of Japan might ease its longstanding lax monetary policy and raise its key interest rate from minus 0.1%
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