Stocks slip as investors look to House vote on debt ceiling, Nasdaq pops nearly 6% in May: Live updates
Stocks fell Wednesday as investors kept an eye on the federal debt ceiling debate in Washington in the final trading day of May.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average traded 134.51 points lower, or 0.41%, to end at 32,908.27. The S&P 500 dipped 0.61% to close at 4,179.83. The Nasdaq Composite slipped 0.63%, finishing at 12,935.29.
The deal, which was reached over the weekend by President Joe Biden and House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, cleared a major test Tuesday night after advancing to the House floor following a 7-6 vote in the House Rules Committee. The floor vote is expected to take place Wednesday evening. “I think we have the votes to pass this today,” said Rep. Patrick McHenry, a GOP negotiator on the debt deal, on CNBC’s “Squawk Box” Wednesday morning.
Sam Stovall, chief investment strategist at CFRA Research, said a debt ceiling deal will likely pass before the U.S. would default, but investors are wondering if more changes and time are needed before an official agreement can be reached. Once a bill is approved, he said market participants will shift focus to the June Federal Reserve policy meeting.
“Some investors are worried that the high-decibel, dissenting fringes might end up causing this vote to fail and require some adjustments before it ends up passing,” Stovall said. “People are taking whatever profits they can ahead of the vote tonight.”
Wednesday’s close marked the end of the May trading month. The Nasdaq Composite finished the month 5.8% higher, helped by a rally in artificial intelligence-related stocks and other technology names. The S&P 500 added nearly 0.3% in the month, despite at one point relinquishing its month-to-date gains during Wednesday’s selloff. The Dow fell almost 3.5% in the month, pulled down by May losses greater than 10% from Nike, Walt Disney, Walgreens, 3M, Chevron and Dow, Inc.
Correction: Nvidia’s market cap briefly topped $1 trillion on Tuesday. A previous version misstated the date.
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