US Market ends in red; Focus on Fed meeting

The US stock market finished session lower on Monday, 31 October 2022, as risk aversion selloff triggered across the board ahead to the Federal Reserve's policy announcement due on Wednesday.,

At the close of trade, the Dow Jones Industrial Average index declined 128.85 points, or 0.39%, to 32,732.95. The S&P500 index fell 29.08 points, or 0.75%, to 3,871.98. The tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite Index decreased 114.31 points, or1.03%, to 10,988.15.

For October 2022, the Dow gained 14%, while the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq added more than 0.8% and 0.4%, respectively, in the month.

Total 10 of 11 S&P500 sectors declined, with communication services (down 1.7%) issue was worst performer, followed by information technology (down 1.3%), utilities (down 0.9%), materials (down 0.9%), and consumer discretionary (down 0.7%), while energy issue outperformed with gain of 0.6%.

The Fed's rapid interest-rate increases have battered markets for much of the year, leaving some investors searching for even the faintest sign that it is time to put their money to work again.

October's stock rally came as traders were encouraged when some Fed officials said they are considering whether to slow the pace of monetary tightening as they balance controlling inflation and avoiding a sharp economic contraction.

The Fed, which is set to meet on Tuesday and Wednesday, is widely expected to raise interest rate by another 75 basis points - its fourth straight rate hike - in its attempt to tame inflation. The focus will be on Fed Chairman Jerome Powell's press conference, which could bring clues about whether the Fed may reduce the size of future rate increases, or continue strong efforts to tame rising prices. Specifically, investors want to know if December will mean yet another 0.75-percentage-point rate increase, or whether the Fed will downshift to a half-percentage-point move.

Tech stocks were lower. Meta Platforms lost 6.1%, continuing last week's slide that followed a disappointing earnings report. Apple Inc shares declined 1.5% on reports the production of the company's iPhones could drop by around 30% next month, citing surge in Covid-19 curbs in China as the reason for the likely drop in production.

ECONOMIC NEWS: A report from the Institute for Supply Management (ISM) showed the Chicago PMI in the U.S. dropped to 45.20 points in October from 45.70 points in September of 2022.

Among Indian ADR, Dr Reddy's Labs fell 1.7% to $54.31, Azure Power Global added 4.3% to $5.79, and HDFC Bank added 1.4% to $62.31. WNS Holdings added 0.61% to $86.08, INFOSYS was down 0.3% at $18.73, Tata Motors fell 1% to $25.01, Wipro fell 0.8% to $4.70, and ICICI Bank fell 1.3% to $22.04.

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