Stock Market Today: Dow Slips After Fed Officials Push Back Against Pivot

By Yasin Ebrahim

Investing.com -- The Dow closed slightly lower Wednesday after swinging between gains and losses as Treasury yields resumed their climb after Federal Reserve officials pushed back against bets of a pivot.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average was 0.1% lower, or 8 points, the Nasdaq was down 0.3%, and the S&P 500 fell 0.2%.

San Francisco Federal Reserve President Mary Daly said that the Fed’s goal to keep tightening monetary policy until interest rates are at a restrictive level “hasn’t really changed,” easing investor bets on a Fed pivot.

Interest rates had reached a point that was potentially a “little bit restrictive, or just at neutral,” Daly added, though insisted that “more rate increases [was] necessary” to bring inflation down. Atlanta Fed President Raphael Bostic echoed those comments, saying it's important for the Fed to "remain purposeful and resolute" in the battle against inflation. 

Economic data, meanwhile, showed U.S. services activity rebounded by more than expected in September, and the private labor market remains robust pointing to underlying economic strength.

Treasury yields climbed, but tech stocks fought back from session lows as dip buyers helped big tech move off session lows.

A climb in chip stocks also supported the broader move off the lows in tech, with Marvell Technology Group Ltd (NASDAQ:MRVL) and Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing (NYSE:TSM) up more than 2%.

Twitter Inc (NYSE:TWTR), meanwhile, fell 1% after rallying more than 22% a day earlier as the social media giant confirmed Tuesday that Musk had agreed to revive the deal to buy the company for $54.20.

The deal is expected to close “without any major issues over the next few weeks,” Wedbush said in a note, though noted that now the “hard part will be fixing it [Twitter] with monetization and subscriber engagement.”

Tesla Inc (NASDAQ:TSLA), however, closed more than 3% lower on expectations that Musk may have to sell more Tesla shares to fund the $44 billion Twitter deal.

As well as a fall in Tesla, consumer discretionary stocks were also weighed down by weakness in cruise line stocks.

Carnival Corporation (NYSE:CCL) fell 4%, while Royal Caribbean Cruises (NYSE:RCL) was down 1%, but Norwegian Cruise Line Ltd (NYSE:NCLH) cut losses to end the day flat.

The stumble in the market following two days of gains comes ahead of the monthly Friday's monthly jobs report that, if surprises to the upside, may pour cold water on hopes for a Fed pivot.