Stocks Hold Onto Gains as Fed Countdown Begins: Markets Wrap

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The stock market crept higher, but stopped short of records Friday, as traders refrained from making big bets ahead of the Federal Reserve’s interest-rate cut decision next week. Treasuries are on track for their worst week since June.

The S&P 500 rose 0.2%, paring back from an earlier 0.6% jump that put it within a whisker of October’s all-time high. The Nasdaq 100 climbed 0.4% while the Russell 2000 gauge of smaller companies slipped after closing at a record on Thursday. Treasuries extended losses with the yield on the 10-year climbing to 4.14%.

A dated reading of the Federal Reserve’s preferred inflation gauge did little to shift Wall Street’s expectations of a rate cut next week with swaps bets pointing to further easing into 2026.

The core personal consumption expenditures price index, a measure that excludes food and energy, rose 0.2% in September, inline with economists expectations for a third-straight 0.2% increase in the Fed’s favored core index. That would keep the year-over-year figure hovering a little below 3%, a sign that inflationary pressures are stable, yet sticky.

“Overall, the data was consistent with another 25 basis point Fed cut next week, but it doesn’t suggest any urgency for the Fed to accelerate the pace of cuts in 2026,” said BMO’s Ian Lyngen.

A December rate cut is a not given for every Fed watcher. BlackRock CIO of Global Fixed Income Rick Rieder told Bloomberg Television before the data that he is expecting some dissents and disagreement at the next meeting.

Meanwhile, sentiment toward technology stocks got a boost after Nvidia Corp. partner Hon Hai Precision Industry Co. reported strong sales. Moore Threads Technology Co., a leading Chinese AI chipmaker, jumped 425% in its Shanghai trading debut. Shares of Netflix Inc. slid after agreeing to a tie-up with Warner Bros. Discovery Inc.

In a sign that institutional appetite for the world’s largest cryptocurrency remains subdued, BlackRock Inc.’s iShares Bitcoin Trust ETF (IBIT) recorded its longest streak of weekly withdrawals since debuting in January 2024.

Investors pulled more than $2.7 billion from the exchange-traded fund over the five weeks to Nov. 28, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. With an additional $113 million of redemptions on Thursday, the ETF is now on pace for a sixth straight week of net outflows. A drop in Bitcoin deepened, falling below $90,000 on Friday.