It’s been a quiet day so far in the stock market, with the Dow, S&P 500 and Nasdaq all hovering around the flatline.
The Dow was flat as of 1:47 p.m. ET. The S&P 500 was down 0.1%. The Nasdaq gained 0.13%.
Wall Street traders are awaiting the Federal Reserve’s decision on interest rates at 2 p.m. ET, followed by Fed Chair Jerome Powell’s remarks at 2:30 p.m. ET.
While the Fed is in focus this afternoon, investors are also bracing for earnings reports from Meta (META), Microsoft (MSFT) and Tesla (TSLA) after the closing bell, followed by Apple (AAPL) on Thursday. Those companies make up four out of the so-called “Magnificent Seven” tech stocks that helped drive market gains across the past three years.
“This week is pivotal in setting the market’s near‑term tone as 2026 progresses,” Chris Brigati, chief investment officer at SWBC, said in a note. “History shows that a strong January often frames the narrative for the rest of the year, with investor psychology playing an outsized role.”
Meanwhile, gold and silver soared higher amid lingering geopolitical uncertainty. Gold rose 4.7%, while silver surged 7.3%.
US Treasury yields, which rise when bonds fall, were slightly higher. The dollar index was up 0.38% after Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent told CNBC this morning that the United States has a “strong dollar policy,” tempering nerves about the dollar’s recent slide.
“Reversing the signal now is consistent with past mixed signals from the Trump administration on the dollar, but also reveals an activist macro trader’s approach to operating Treasury policy — toggling the signals to try to manage the FX market,” Krishna Guha, vice chairman at Evercore ISI, said in a note.
