U.S. Stocks Seeing Modest Strength Following Yesterday's Pullback

(RTTNews) - Stocks have moved modestly higher during trading on Tuesday, regaining ground following the pullback seen in the previous session. The major averages have all moved to the upside, although buying interest appears somewhat subdued.

Currently, the major averages are holding on to slim gains. The Dow is up 83.53 points or 0.2 percent at 47,822.85, the Nasdaq is up 56.43 points or 0.2 percent at 23,602.34 and the S&P 500 is up 15.03 points or 0.2 percent at 6,861.54.

Traders seem reluctant to make more significant moves ahead of the Federal Reserve's monetary policy announcement on Wednesday.

While the Fed is widely expected to lower interest rates by another quarter point, there is considerable uncertainty about the longer-term outlook for rates.

CME Group's FedWatch Tool is currently indicating an 89.6 percent chance the Fed will lower rates by a quarter point on Wednesday but a 70.3 percent chance the central bank will leave rates unchanged in January.

Traders are likely to pay close attention to the wording of the Fed's accompanying statement as well as Fed Chair Jerome Powell's post-meeting press conference for clues about the likelihood of further rate cuts.

On the U.S. economic front, the Labor Department released a report showing job openings in the U.S. edged slightly higher in the month of October.

The Labor Department said job openings crept up to 7.670 million in October from 7.658 million in September.

"The data is unlikely to prevent the Federal Reserve from following through with a rate cut later this week, but it does support our assumption that officials will opt for an extended pause due to signs of labor market stabilization," said Matthew Martin, Senior US Economist at Oxford Economics.

Sector News

While most of the major sectors are showing only modest moves, gold stocks have moved sharply higher amid an increase by the price of the precious metal, driving the NYSE Arca Gold Bugs Index up by 3.2 percent.

Notable strength is also visible among brokerage stocks, as reflected by the 1.6 percent gain being posted by the NYSE Arca Broker/Dealer Index.

Oil service and banking stocks are also seeing some strength on the day, while housing stocks have moved to the downside.

Other Markets

In overseas trading, stock markets across the Asia-Pacific region moved mostly lower on Tuesday. Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index slumped by 1.3 percent and China's Shanghai Composite Index fell by 0.4 percent, although Japan's Nikkei 225 Index bucked the downtrend and inched up by 0.1 percent.

Meanwhile, the major European markets are turning in a mixed performance on the day. While the German DAX Index is up by 0.5 percent, the U.K.'s FTSE 100 Index is just below the unchanged line and the French CAC 40 Index is down by 0.7 percent.

In the bond market, treasuries have shown a lack of direction over the course of the session. Currently, the yield on the benchmark ten-year note, which moves opposite of its price, is down by less than a basis point at 4.170 percent.