U.S. Stocks Erase Early Gains and Trade Lower as Fed Decision Nears

By Liz Moyer 

Investing.com -- U.S. stocks lost their early gains on Tuesday and turned red after stronger than expected data on jobs in September.

At 10:12 ET (14:12 GMT), the Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 75 points or 0.2%, while the S&P 500 was down 0.2%, and the NASDAQ Composite was down 0.4%.

Investors are awaiting the Federal Reserve's decision on Wednesday, with expectations for another 0.75 percentage point interest rate hike but hope for an indication that the Fed will start to ease back on that at its next meeting in December.

Blue-chip stocks had their best month since 1976 in October, fueled by better than expected earnings reports from big companies and the belief that the Fed was nearing the end of its most aggressive phase in fighting inflation after data showed the economy is cooling.

Tech giants have struggled in recent weeks on a slowdown in sales of PCs and a slowdown in digital advertising.

The Institute for Supply Management reported a dip in manufacturing PMI to 50.2 in October from 50.9 in September, a step closer to tipping into contraction phase. The reading was better than expected. JOLTs job openings were 10.7 million in September, well ahead of the 10 million expected and the 10.3 million in the prior month.

Uber Technologies (NYSE:UBER) rose 14% after a strong fourth quarter outlook. Pfizer (NYSE:PFE) shares rose 3% after it hiked its full-year sales estimates for its COVID-19 vaccine.

Oil rose. Crude Oil WTI Futures was up 2.6%, to $88.71 a barrel, while Brent Oil Futures crude rose 2.3% to $94.87 a barrel. Gold Futures also rose 0.9%, to $1655.