Wall Street cools as it slips from all-time highs
In late trade on Tuesday, the U.S. stock market edged lower as a "wait and see mood" dominated Wall Street, with investors closely monitoring the U.S. Federal Reserve's policy ahead of important inflation data scheduled for release later in the holiday-shortened week.
Today's activity marked a retreat from last week's highs, with all three major U.S. indexes closing at record levels on Thursday as the Dow neared the 40,000 mark.
At the close of the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE), the Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped -31.31 points, or -0.1%, to 39,282.33.
The broad-based Standard & Poor's 500 Index dropped -14.61 points, or -0.3%, to 5,203.58, marking its third consecutive modest decline since reaching an all-time high.
Meanwhile, amid quiet trading, the Nasdaq Composite Index, which is heavily weighted towards tech stocks, declined by -68.77 points, or -0.4 %, closing at 16,315.70.
Investors now await the release of U.S. GDP figures and the Core Personal Consumption Expenditure (PCE) index print, the U.S. Federal Reserve's preferred inflation metric.
These updates are crucial, especially as U.S. markets will be closed for the Good Friday holiday.
This update is particularly significant following the Fed's March meeting last week.
Despite recent reports indicating inflation remains higher than anticipated, the Fed appears to anticipate a continuation of the longer-term cooling trend in inflation.
Traders expect the U.S. Federal Reserve to start cutting its main interest rate in June, with some even considering the possibility of it happening at next week's meeting.
Among the "Magnificent Seven," Tesla rose by +2.9%, Microsoft dipped by -0.3%, Apple declined by -0.7%, Nvidia fell by -2.5%, Alphabet increased by +0.4%, Amazon dropped by -0.8%, and Meta slid by -1.4%.
Trump Media & Technology Group surged +16.1% on its first day of trading under the "DJT" ticker, reflecting excitement over Donald Trump's potential White House run.
However, experts warn its valuation is inflated.
Truth Social, its main asset, operates at a loss and faces tough competition.
Critics also question the broader stock market's valuation, though not as sharply as with Trump Media.
In the U.S. government bond markets, the yield on the 10-year Treasury, which helps set rates for mortgages and other economy-dictating loans, finished at 4.23%, while the policy-sensitive two-year yield, which tends to reflect the market expectations of future moves by the Fed, closed at 4.60%.
Meanwhile, despite Bitcoin reaching a weekly high of over US$71,000, excitement builds with just a few weeks left before the cryptocurrency's highly anticipated halving of block rewards.
Bitcoin, the world's largest cryptocurrency, briefly touched US$71,000 at the start of the week before pulling back, but renewed momentum triggered another surge to a high of US$71,490.70 Tuesday.
The cryptocurrency currently trades hands at $70,100.00, with an intraday range of US$69,366.00 to US$71,490.70.
With April quickly approaching, traders are preparing for the upcoming Bitcoin halving event.
This event, occurring approximately every four years based on preset rules in Bitcoin's code, involves cutting the block reward given to Bitcoin miners in half.
Historically, ‘halvings’ have been bullish for Bitcoin, but historical patterns can always shift.
Meanwhile, Ethereum, the second-largest blockchain by cryptocurrency market capitalization, traded within a daily range of US$3,584.00 to US$3,588.00 before closing at US$3,580.00.
Precious metals were firmer, with spot gold closing at $2,178.00 per ounce and silver at $24.46.
Energy market prices weakened, with the global benchmark Brent crude oil priced at $85.30 per barrel, while the U.S. benchmark West Texas Intermediate settled at $80.94.
The U.S. Dollar Index (U.S. DXY), gauging the greenback's strength against six major foreign currencies in the forex market, was flat at 104.28.
Meanwhile, the Eurodollar was 1.0830, and the British pound finished at 1.2620. The Japanese yen ended at 151.54, while the Australian dollar was at 0.6532.
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