US stocks start the week lower; investors eye rates
The Dow and S&P 500 slipped on Monday, the first session after the biggest weekly percentage gains for the indexes this year, as investors gauged the likely path of interest rates from the Federal Reserve ahead of key inflation data due later in this holiday-shortened week. Last week, the Fed maintained its guidance for three interest-rate cuts this year, and the S&P 500 and Dow had strong gains while the Nasdaq notched its biggest weekly percentage gain since mid-January. On Monday, Chicago Fed President Austan Goolsbee said he had penciled in three rate cuts for this year, while Fed Governor Lisa Cook said the central bank needs to proceed with caution as it decides when to start cutting interest rates. "It's a breather, the market has held really well, so people are waiting, there’s a lot of people waiting for that pullback," said Joe Saluzzi, partner, co-founder and co-head of equity trading at Themis Trading in Chatham, New Jersey. "What the Fed did was give the all clear for now, it's really interesting what they are doing. They're not cutting anything yet they just keep delaying it and the market is fine with that... but they're doing a good job right now of saving the bullets for when they need them." The S&P 500 lost 0.3 percent, to end at 5,218, the Nasdaq Composite lost 0.3 percent to 16,384, and the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 0.4 percent to 39,313. Economic data showed sales of new US single-family homes fell unexpectedly in February after mortgage rates increased during the month. The underlying trend remained strong with a chronic shortage of previously owned houses on the market. (Reuters)