Getty Images
The market sagged again Tuesday ahead of tomorrow's conclusion of the latest Federal Open Market Committee meeting, with technology stocks showing the greatest weakness.
The Labor Department delivered another sign of surging inflation today, announcing that wholesale prices jumped 9.6% year-over-year in November. That number was ahead of economist expectations for 9.2% and marked the fastest rate since the department started keeping tabs in November 2010.
Several experts believe that all but guarantees the Fed will announce a faster tapering of asset purchases, which in turn is raising fears that interest-rate hikes could follow soon.
"Our base case is that the Fed doubles its pace of QE tapering which would, in theory, put the March meeting in play for policy rate liftoff," says Lauren Goodwin, economist and portfolio strategist at New York Life Investments. "We also expect the Fed's median 'dots' to show rate hikes earlier in 2022, with likely two hikes next year."
"Yet, bond yields don't seem to be worried about inflation sticking around as the 10-year [Treasury] sits 20 basis points below pre-Thanksgiving levels," notes Lindsey Bell, chief money and markets strategist at Ally Invest. "While the Fed is more heavily leaning on inflation readings for cues on pace and timing of its monetary unwind, I believe the greater predictor of both inflation and Fed policy will be the job market."
Still, the news weighed on the rate-sensitive tech sector (-1.6%), as did a note from JPMorgan analyst Sterling Auty, who lowered his ratings on Adobe (ADBE, -6.6%), Zscaler (ZS, -7.8%) and Datadog (DDOG, -6.5%), among other software stocks. Microsoft (MSFT, -3.3%) and Intuit (INTU, -4.4%) also weighed on the sector.
Sign up for Kiplinger's FREE Investing Weekly e-letter for stock, ETF and mutual fund recommendations, and other investing advice.
All that put the greatest burden on the Nasdaq Composite, which was off 1.1% to 15,237. The S&P 500 dropped a more modest 0.8% to 4,634, and the Dow Jones Industrial Average escaped with a mere 0.3% decline to 35,544.
Other news in the stock market today:
Coming up is a holiday tradition that people from all walks of life across this great nation participate in every year: getting their investment lives in order.
The end of the year is a popular time for people to re-evaluate their portfolios, especially 401(k)'ers who tend to check in once a year – hence our 401(k) fund series, which looks at major fund families such as Fidelity and Vanguard that boast oodles of products that are popular retirement-plan funds.
But other fund families deserve watching, too, especially if you're investing in a brokerage, IRA or another vehicle where you can access mutual funds and exchange-traded funds (ETFs) alike.
Today, we take a look at some top funds from Charles Schwab – a provider that has built itself a name in recent years for its ultra-competitive low costs. Read on as we highlight 10 names that seem built to handle what 2022 has to offer.
Kiplinger is part of Future plc, an international media group and leading digital publisher. Visit our corporate site www.futurenet.com
© Future US LLC, 10th floor, 1100 13th Street, N.W Washington, DC 20005 . All rights reserved.
