U.S. Stocks Falling To New Lows In Afternoon Trading

After moving sharply lower in early trading, stocks continue to see significant weakness in afternoon trading on Tuesday. The tech-heavy Nasdaq staged a recovery attempt in late morning trading but has since rejoined its counterparts firmly in the red.

The major averages have seen further downside in recent trading, falling to new lows for the session. The Dow is down 476.20 points or 1.5 percent at 30,543.48, the Nasdaq is down 155.98 points or 1.4 percent at 11,379.04 and the S&P 500 is down 62.16 points or 1.6 percent at 3,837.73.

The sell-off on Wall Street comes as traders seem jittery ahead of the Federal Reserve’s monetary policy decision on Wednesday.

The Fed is widely expected to raise interest rates by another 75 basis points, although some see an outside chance for a 100 basis point rate hike.

CME Group’s FedWatch Tool is currently indicating an 84.0 percent chance of a 75 basis points rate hike and a 16.0 percent chance of a 100 basis point rate hike.

Treasury yields are seeing further upside ahead of the Fed announcement, with the yield on the benchmark ten-year note jumping to a new eleven-year intraday high.

Several of other major central banks around the world are also scheduled to announce their latest monetary policy decisions this week, including the Bank of England and the Bank of Japan.

A notable drop by shares of Ford (F) is also weighing on Wall Street, with the auto giant plunging by 11.4 percent to its lowest intraday level in almost two months,

The pullback by Ford comes after the company warned inflation-related supplier costs during the third quarter will run about $1.0 billion higher than originally expected.

On the U.S. economic front, the Commerce Department released a report showing an unexpected spike in new residential construction in the U.S. in the month of August, although the report also showed a steeper than expected slump in building permits.

Sector News

Gold stocks continue to see substantial weakness in afternoon trading, resulting in a 3.8 percent nosedive by the NYSE Arca Gold Bugs Index.

The sell-off by gold stocks comes amid a modest decrease by the price of the precious metal, with gold for December delivery slipping $4.60 to $1,673.60 an ounce.

Considerable weakness also remains visible among housing stocks, as reflected by the 3 percent plunge by the Philadelphia Housing Sector Index. The index is on pace to end the session at a two-month closing low.

Steel stocks also continue to see significant weakness on the day, dragging the NYSE Arca Steel Index down by 2.8 percent.

Transportation, oil service and commercial real estate stocks have also moved notably lower amid broad based weakness on Wall Street.

Other Markets

In overseas trading, stock markets across the Asia-Pacific region moved mostly higher during trading on Tuesday. Japan’s Nikkei 225 Index rose by 0.4 percent, while Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index jumped by 1.2 percent.

Meanwhile, the major European markets moved to the downside on the day. While the U.K.’s FTSE 100 Index slid by 0.6 percent, the German DAX Index slumped by 1.0 percent and the French CAC 40 Index tumbled by 1.4 percent.

In the bond market, treasuries have climbed well off their lows of the session but remain firmly negative. As a result, the yield on the benchmark ten-year note, which moves opposite of its price, is up by 5.2 basis points at 3.542 percent.

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