5 issues to know earlier than the inventory market opens Wednesday

Listed below are 5 key issues traders must know to start out the buying and selling day:

The S&P 500 ended Tuesday little modified as merchants await the Federal Reserve’s key rate of interest reduce resolution (extra on that under). The broad-market index touched a report excessive earlier in buying and selling and ended the break day the mark at simply 0.03% increased. The Dow Jones Industrial Average inched down 15.9 factors, or 0.04%, after additionally hitting a contemporary report through the session. The Nasdaq Composite added 0.2% for the day. The report highs for the S&P 500 and the Dow come throughout a traditionally robust interval for the market, as September has been the worst month for the benchmark over the previous 10 years, in keeping with FactSet information. Follow live market updates.

Federal Reserve conferences are sometimes predictable occasions, with policymakers telegraphing their intentions forward of time — however this time there’s an air of mystery. Fed watchers are fairly certain there can be some kind of rate cut, however they’re divided on if it will likely be the normal quarter-percentage-point, or 25-basis-point, fee discount, or a extra aggressive 50-basis-point reduce. The Federal Open Market Committee has held its benchmark fed funds fee on the highest stage in 23 years, a spread between 5.25%-5.5%, because it final raised charges in July 2023. Markets will even be watching to see what alerts assembly contributors ship about the place charges are anticipated to go from right here, in addition to unofficial forecasts for unemployment, gross home product and inflation.

Alaska Airlines and Hawaiian Airlines are cleared for merging. The Division of Transportation stated Tuesday that the 2 carriers might undergo with their $1.9 billion merger settlement, however they need to keep the worth of their frequent-flyer miles packages and keep a number of key routes. Additionally they should hold “important air assist” for rural areas, in addition to present ranges of service for passenger and cargo routes between the Hawaiian islands, U.S. Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg stated. The 2 airways stated in December, once they introduced plans to mix, that they might hold every provider’s model however function underneath a single platform.

Tech transaction volume has plummeted, falling to $544 billion final yr after peaking at $1.5 trillion in 2021, in keeping with Dealogic. To date in 2024, tech mergers and acquisitions have hit $465 billion. Now, with the upcoming presidential election, Large Tech is “at a crossroads” after that droop in dealmaking, Sergio Letelier, Hewlett Packard Enterprise’s head of company improvement, advised CNBC’s Jordan Novet. “We do not know which aspect of the fork the coverage goes to go,” he stated. That is partly as a result of neither get together has supplied a lot readability on the matter. The Biden administration has thwarted the most important firms from pursuing offers, however the regulatory surroundings may very well be poised for a shake-up with the election.

Snap unveiled the fifth era of its Spectacles augmented actuality glasses on Tuesday after years of attempting to interrupt into client {hardware}. The newest glasses, which may overlay digital graphics onto the bodily world, are solely accessible for builders, who should decide to paying $99 a month for a full yr in the event that they need to develop any AR apps. Snap additionally stated it is partnering with ChatGPT maker OpenAI on synthetic intelligence instruments for the glasses. Snap’s announcement got here days earlier than rival Meta is predicted to disclose its newest {hardware}. Learn extra about both companies’ struggles with consumer hardware here.

— CNBC’s Hakyung Kim, Jeff Cox, Leslie Josephs, Jordan Novet and Jonathan Vanian contributed to this report.