U.S. stocks were wobbling on Wednesday morning as investors continued to weigh the future path of the Federal Reserve’s interest-rate cuts after a mixed batch of labor-market data released this week.
The Dow was off 0.1% to 42,500 as of 11 a.m. Eastern time, while the S&P 500 was also falling 0.1% and the Nasdaq Composite was dropping 0.2%, according to FactSet data.
Major indexes on Wednesday were coming off a rough trading session which saw the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite off nearly 2% to suffer its worst day in three weeks. Treasury yields spiked on Tuesday after strong economic reports dampened hopes for aggressive rate cuts this year.
“I wouldn’t make much of the markets’ move on Tuesday — the markets were still trying to recalibrate and understand what policies the new administration will bring, what impact will that have on growth and inflation, and how will the Fed adjust their policy as a result,” said Sid Vaidya, U.S. wealth strategist at TD Wealth.
Vaidya told MarketWatch he expects the volatility in the bond market to “hold in place” until investors get a better gauge of “the level and breath” of President-elect Donald Trump’s tariff and immigration plans when he officially takes the office on January 20.