LIVE MARKETS-Stocks press "pause" ahead of Fed

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STOCKS PRESS "PAUSE" AHEAD OF FED

Wall Street ended a lackluster session in the red on Monday, the day before the Fed is slated to sit down for its last monetary policy meeting of 2025.

Benchmark U.S. Treasury yields touched heights last seen in September, enticing investors away from equities.

All three major U.S. stock indexes closed modestly lower on the day, snapping four-day winning streaks for the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq.

Tech shares .SPLRCT - most notably, chips .SOX - provided a rare glimpse of green and limited the Nasdaq's losses.

Other clear outperformers included regional banks .KRX and aerospace/defense stocks .SPCOMAED.

Despite the day's weakness, the S&P 500 remains a mere 0.6% below its all-time closing high reached on October 28.

On Tuesday, Powell & Co gather for their two-day meeting, which is widely expected to culminate in a 25-basis-point interest rate cut, the third and final cut this year; an outcome currently assigned an 89.4% probability by CME's FedWatch tool.

Also on Tuesday, the National Federation of Independent Business is due to release its November Business Optimism data, while analysts expect the Labor Department to report there were 7.15 million unfilled jobs in October as part of its Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey, which, as a gauge of labor market churn, is certain to get the FOMC's attention.

Here's your closing snapshot:

(Stephen Culp)

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