Wall Street headed lower before markets opened today following the holiday weekend, according to the Associated Press. U.S. markets were closed Monday, leaving investors without cues from overnight trading. Futures for the S&P 500 were 0.3% lower before the bell, and futures for the Dow Jones Industrial Average slipped 0.2%.
Stocks have been roaring toward records for months, pulling the S&P 500 within 0.3% of its all-time high, on hopes that inflation is cooling enough for the Federal Reserve to cut interest rates several times this year. After a promising start to the year, however, investors are growing a bit more cautious about how soon the Fed will begin cutting interest rates, how quickly, and by how much.
Microsoft rose about 0.7% to $391.25 per share before the bell today, vaulting past Apple to become the world’s most valuable publicly-traded company, with a market capitalization of $2.89 trillion.
In other trading, a barrel of benchmark U.S. crude oil picked up 34 cents to $73.02 per barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Brent crude, the international standard, climbed 68 cents to $78.83 per barrel.
The dollar bought 146.69 yen, down slightly from 145.75 late Monday.
