Wall Street holds steady just below recent records
NEW YORK AP Stocks are holding near breakeven in morning trading on Wall Street Tuesday as indexes hover just below their new all-time highs The S P was mostly unchanged The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell points or as of a m Eastern time The Nasdaq composite rose Boeing rose after Korean Air informed a billion deal with the company that includes buying more than aircraft Dish Setup parent EchoStar surged after AT T disclosed it will buy chosen of its wireless spectrum licenses in a billion deal Treasury yields were little changed in the bond sector The yield on the -year Treasury rose to from late Monday The broader domain remained subdued following President Donald Trump s escalation of his fight with the Federal Reserve On Monday he noted that he s removing Federal Reserve Governor Lisa Cook She has responded that she will not resign It marks the latest escalation in his dispute with the central bank over its cautious interest rate approach The Fed has held rates steady since late over worries that Trump s unpredictable tariff protocol will reignite inflation Trump has also threatened to fire Fed Chair Jerome Powell often taunting him with name-calling Still he is only one of votes that decides interest rate procedures We will continue to monitor rising political pressure on the Fed but expect its decision-making to remain guided by its mandate in the near term declared Ulrike Hoffmann-Burchardi chief financing officer for the Americas and global head of equities at UBS Global Wealth Management Wall Street is still betting that the Fed will trim its benchmark interest rate at its next meeting in September Traders see an chance that the central bank will cut the rate by a quarter of a percentage point according to statistics from CME Group The two-year Treasury yield which more closely tracks expectations for Fed action slipped to to from late Friday The Federal Reserve spent much of the last several years fighting rising inflation by raising interest rates It managed to mostly tame inflation and avoided having those higher rates stall economic improvement thanks largely to strong consumer spending and a resilient job realm The Fed started shifting its initiative by cutting its benchmark interest rate late in as the rate of inflation neared its target of It decided to hit the pause button heading into over concerns that Trump s unpredictable tariff protocol could reignite inflation Lower interest rates make borrowing easier helping to spur more financing and spending but that could also potentially fuel inflation The Fed and Wall Street will get another update on inflation Friday when the U S releases the personal consumption expenditures index Economists expect it show that inflation remained at about in July compared with a year ago Businesses have been warning investors and consumers about higher costs and prices because of tariffs The Fed has lately become more worried about the state of the employment field which has shown signs of weakening Aside from keeping inflation in check the central bank is tasked with using its tools to help maintain a healthy job industry It will get another big update on the employment region in early September ahead of its next initiative meeting Consumer confidence declined modestly in August as anxiety over a weakening job realm grew for the eighth straight month The small decline from the Conference Board s monthly survey was mostly in line with economists projections Crude oil prices fell European markets were lower and Asian markets closed lower overnight Source
