Markets prepare for any hints on September rate cut
CNN
Wall Street overwhelmingly expects the central bank to hold its benchmark borrowing rate steady at the current 23-year high.
Stocks continued climbing Wednesday mid-morning as Wall Street waited for the Federal Reserve to announce its latest interest rate decision. The Dow rose 243 points, or 0.6%. The S&P 500 gained 1.6% and the Nasdaq Composite jumped 2.5%. The broad move higher was led by tech stocks after chipmaker Advanced Micro Devices reported strong earnings on Tuesday evening. AMD shares added 4.4% and Nvidia shares popped 11.7%. The vast majority (86%) of current renters in the United States say they would like to buy a home — but can’t afford one, according to a CNN poll conducted by SSRS released Monday. Among those same renters who can’t afford to buy a home right now, 54% think it’s unlikely they’ll ever be able to, the poll found. The findings underscore the damage done by the one-two punch of surging home prices and elevated mortgage rates, creating an affordability crisis. And given that homeownership is the ticket to wealth generation in America, that pessimism exacerbates the risk that the divide between the haves and have-nots will only grow.
Nippon Steel is expected to re-file its application for a national security review by American regulators of its $15 billion takeover bid of US Steel, sources familiar with the matter told CNN on Tuesday, buying Japan’s largest steelmaker an additional 90 days to close its acquisition of an American rival after political opposition emerged in an election year.
So far, the attacks that targeted Iran-backed Lebanese militant group Hezbollah members through their pagers have had devastating consequences. At least nine people, including an eight-year-old girl, were killed, and at least 2,800 were wounded. Over 150 of those injured are in critical condition, according to the Lebanese health minister.