U.S. stocks traded mixed midday Monday, as investors looked ahead to this week’s meeting of Federal Reserve policy makers, while losses for aircraft maker Boeing again dragged on the Dow Jones Industrial Average after The Wall Street Journal reported federal prosecutors and Transportation Department officials are probing the development of the company’s 737 MAX jetliners.
How are the major indexes trading?
The Dow Jones Industrial Average DJIA, +0.08% fell 22 points, or 0.1%, to 25,827, while the S&P 500 index SPX, +0.24% ticked 2 points higher to 2,825, a gain of roughly 0.1%. The Nasdaq Composite Index COMP, +0.20% fell 3 points, or less than 0.1%, to 7,685.
Investors were catching their breath following a rally last week that took the S&P 500 above long-term resistance at 2,800. The S&P rose 2.9% last week to end Friday at 2,822.48. The Dow rose 1.6% last week to close Friday at 25,848.87 and the Nasdaq Composite added 3.8% to end at 7,688.53.
The S&P and Nasdaq posted their highest settlements since Oct. 9, while the Dow ended at its highest level since March 1.
What’s driving the market?
YMM9, +0.04% The Federal Reserve is expected to leave rates unchanged when it concludes a two-day policy meeting on Wednesday, but attention will be focused on the statement issued by policy makers, Chairman Jerome Powell’s remarks at a news conference following the meeting and the updated interest-rate forecasts provided by policy makers in the so-called dot plot.
Most economists look for the Fed to lower its projected path on interest rates to one hike in 2019 and one more in 2020, while maintaining the dovish, wait-and-see stance it adopted in January — a shift that was credited with helping accelerate a rebound by U.S. equities from a December selloff.
Read: Fed seen revealing ‘how and when’ it will stop shedding balance sheet assets
Investors continue to keep an eye on U.S.-China trade talks. A proposed summit between President Donald Trump and China’s Xi Jinping to end the trade battle between the two countries may be pushed back to June, the South China Morning Post reported over the weekend. The proposed meeting had been originally targeted for March, then pushed back to April amid slow-moving trade talks.
Shares of Dow component Boeing Co. BA, -2.21% were off 2.2% Monday. The Wall Street Journal reported Sunday that federal prosecutors and Department of Transportation officials were scrutinizing the development of the company’s 737 MAX jetliners. The report said it wasn’t immediately clear whether the probe was related to scrutiny of the Federal Aviation Administration by the Transportation Department’s inspector general’s office.
What other stocks are in focus?
YMM9, +0.04% Shares of Lumber Liquidators Holdings Inc. LL, -7.67% were down 10.7% Monday, after the wood-flooring retailer announced that its fourth-quarter revenue fell short of Wall Street estimates.
Dermira Inc. DERM, +74.44% stock rose more than 92%, after the biotech firm reported positive results in a mid-stage trial of a treatment for moderate-to-severe atopic dermatitis.
Shares of Edwards Lifesciences Corp. EW, +5.85% rose 6.1% Monday morning, after the firm presented positive results from noninvasive heart valve replacement systems, and management engaged in a question-and-answer session at the 2019 American College of Cardiology conference over the weekend.
Overstock.com Inc. OSTK, -4.89% shares fell 3.3%, after the online retailer and blockchain technology company reported a wider-than-expected fourth-quarter loss as revenue surprisingly declined.
In deal news, Fidelity National Information Services Inc. FIS, -0.97% said Monday it would buy e-commerce and payments group Worldpay Inc. WP, +9.61% WPY, +9.31% in a cash-and-stock deal that values Worldpay at $43 billion. Shares of Fidelity National Information Services were down 1.6%, while Worldpay shares rose 8.8%.
What are the analysts saying?
YMM9, +0.04% “The market is in a wait-and-see mood as it waits for the Fed to meet,” said Tom Martin, senior portfolio manager with Globalt Investments, in an interview.
“Valuations are now back to the levels they were when the market started to have some trouble” late last year, he added. “You’re seeing a bias toward hanging out in a narrow trading range,” until investors get more concrete information on the trajectory of corporate profit growth and the state of U.S.-China trade negotiations, Martin said.
“The fact that the U.S. and China are pushing out the date for a deal is positive because that means they’re still making progress,” as opposed to simply cutting off negotiations, Steve Skancke, chief economic adviser at Keel Point Wealth Management. “The administration doesn’t feel like they’re under pressure to get something done this month or next.”
What data are traders watching?
YMM9, +0.04% The National Association of Home Builders’ monthly confidence index was unchanged at a seasonally-adjusted reading of 62.
How are other markets trading?
YMM9, +0.04% Shares in Asia closed higher on Monday, with Japan’s Nikkei 225 NIK, +0.62% China’s Shanghai Composite Index SHCOMP, +2.47% and Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index HSI, +1.37% all advancing on the day.
In Europe, stocks were modestly higher, with the Stoxx Europe 600 SXXP, +0.27% adding 0.1% Monday.
Crude oil prices CLJ9, +1.04% were ticking higher. The value of gold GCJ9, +0.03% meanwhile, edged up, while the U.S. dollar DXY, +0.05% was virtually unchanged.
