{"id":14124,"date":"2021-09-20T15:20:40","date_gmt":"2021-09-20T15:20:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.pantheregroup.com\/2021\/09\/20\/u-s-stocks-move-sharply-lower-ahead-of-fed-meeting\/"},"modified":"2021-09-20T15:20:40","modified_gmt":"2021-09-20T15:20:40","slug":"u-s-stocks-move-sharply-lower-ahead-of-fed-meeting","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.pantheregroup.com\/2021\/09\/20\/u-s-stocks-move-sharply-lower-ahead-of-fed-meeting\/","title":{"rendered":"U.S. Stocks Move Sharply Lower Ahead Of Fed Meeting"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Stocks have moved sharply lower during trading on Monday, extending the drop seen last week. With the downward move on the day, the Dow and the S&P 500 have fallen to their lowest intraday levels in about two months.<\/p>\n

Currently, the major averages remain firmly in negative territory. The Dow is down 504.92 points or 1.5 percent at 34,079.96, the Nasdaq is down 303.05 points or 2 percent at 14,740.92 and the S&P 500 is down 70.10 points or 1.6 percent at 4,362.89.<\/p>\n

The weakness on Wall Street comes as traders look ahead to the Federal Reserve’s highly anticipated monetary policy announcement on Wednesday.<\/p>\n

The Fed is widely expected to leave monetary policy unchanged but could address the outlook for its asset purchase program.<\/p>\n

The minutes of the Fed’s last meeting signaled the central bank was prepared to begin scaling back asset purchases by the end of the year.<\/p>\n

With some recent disappointing economic data suggesting the Fed could push back its plans, traders are likely to pay close attention to the wording of the post-meeting statement.<\/p>\n

Steel stocks have shown a substantial move to the downside on the day, with the NYSE Arca Steel Index plunging by 4.8 percent to its lowest intraday level in almost six months.<\/p>\n

Considerable weakness is also visible among oil service stocks, as reflected by the 3.9 percent slump by the Philadelphia Oil Service Index. The sell-off in the oil service sector comes amid a steep drop by the price of crude oil.<\/p>\n

Financial, semiconductor and housing stocks are also seeing significant weakness, moving lower along with most of the other major sectors.<\/p>\n

In overseas trading, stock markets<\/span> across the Asia-Pacific region moved mostly lower, although several major markets were closed for holidays. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index plunged by 3.3 percent, while Australia’s S&P\/ASX 200 Index tumbled by 2.1 percent.<\/p>\n

The major European markets have also shown significant moves to the downside on the day. While the U.K.’s FTSE 100 Index has slumped by 1 percent, the French CAC 40 Index and the German DAX Index are down by 1.7 percent and 2.5 percent, respectively.<\/p>\n

In the bond market, treasuries have moved higher following the sharp pullback seen over the three previous sessions. As a result, the yield on the benchmark ten-year note, which moves opposite of its price, is down by 4.2 basis points at 1.328 percent. <\/p>\n<\/p>\n<\/div>\n