Stock Market News for Jan 9, 2025

U.S. stock markets closed mixed on Wednesday as market participants remained concerned regarding the forward trajectory of both inflation and interest rates. Moreover, treasury yields remained elevated. However, weak labor market data safeguard investors’ sentiments. The Dow and the S&P 500 ended in positive territory, while the Nasdaq Composite finished in negative zone. Wall Street will be closed on Thursday in observance of a National Day of Mourning for former President Jimmy Carter.

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The Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJI) gained 0.3% or 106.84 points to close at 42,635.20 after a choppy session. At intraday low, the blue-chip index was down as much as 200 points. Notably, 18 components of the 30-stock index ended in positive territory while 12 in negative zone.

The major gainer of the index was UnitedHealth Group Inc. UNH. The stock price of this global leader for medical and health insurance rose 2%. UnitedHealth currently carries a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold). You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here.

The tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite finished at 19,478.88, declining 0.1% due to weak performance by technology behemoths. The S&P 500 rose 0.1% to finish at 5,918.25. Eight out of 11 broad sectors of the broad-market index ended in positive territory and three in negative zone. The Materials Select Sector SPDR (XLB) and the Health Care Select Sector SPDR (XLV) increased 0.6% and 0.5%, respectively. 

The fear-gauge CBOE Volatility Index (VIX) was down 0.7% to 17.70. A total of 15.86 billion shares were traded on Wednesday, higher than the last 20-session average of 12.29 billion. Decliners outnumbered decliners on the NYSE by a 1.21-to-1 ratio. On Nasdaq, a 1.98-to-1 ratio favored declining issues.

A majority of the Fed’s FOMC members expressed concern about slow declining inflation rate. More important, the members were highly uncertain about the impact of President-elect Donald Trump’s tariff policies on existing inflation rate.

See more : Prediction: The Stock Market Will Experience a 10% Correction at Some Point in 2025

Trump has already indicated his plans of imposing punitive tariffs in the range of 10-20% on imports across the world, especially on China, Mexico and Canada. Consequently, FOMC unanimously decided to go slow on future reduction of interest rate.

In September FOMC, the central bank hinted for 1% rate cut in 2024 and 2025 each. The Fed did cut the range of the Fed fund rate by 1% to 4.25-4.5%. However, in December, the Fed indicated that only two rate cuts of 25 basis-points each is expected in 2025 instead of four projected in September.

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