S&P 500 declines after weak consumer confidence reading: Live updates

The Conference Board said Tuesday that its consumer confidence index fell sharply in September, putting pressure on equities.

The index came in at 98.7, down from an upwardly revised August reading of 105.6. That’s also well below a Dow Jones consensus forecast of 104.

“September’s decline was the largest since August 2021 and all five components of the Index deteriorated. Consumers’ assessments of current business conditions turned negative while views of the current labor market situation softened further. Consumers were also more pessimistic about future labor market conditions and less positive about future business conditions and future income,” Dana Peterson, chief economist at The Conference Board, said in a statement.

— Fred Imbert

Caterpillar shares were up more than 3% on Tuesday after the Chinese central bank unveiled new stimulus measures to support the country’s economy. That gain put the industrial giant on track for its best day since Jan. 25.

Year to date, the stock is up 30%, on pace for its biggest one-year advance since 2017 — when it rallied 69.9%.

— Fred Imbert

Stocks opened higher on Monday, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average touching a fresh record-high.

The 30-stock Dow advanced 42 points, or 0.1% after briefly notching a new record. The S&P 500 added 0.15% while the Nasdaq Composite gained 0.42%.

— Brian Evans

— Sarah Min, Tom Rotunno

While stocks still remain at record-high levels, volatility hasn’t fully exited equity markets and could be a play a larger role as the election looms, according to Piper Sandler.

“Equity markets remain constructive as the quarter-end nears. However, we anticipate some backing and filling in the weeks before the November elections,” analyst Craig Johnson wrote on Tuesday.

— Brian Evans

Chinese stocks soared after the country’s central bank unveiled new stimulus to spur economic growth. Adam Crisafulli of Vital Knowledge called the easing measures the biggest news out of the overnight session.

“The news is undoubtedly bullish for Chinese stocks (and cyclical/industrial sentiment broadly), although many are adopting a dismissive “here we go again” attitude toward the headlines, lamenting the scope and scale of the actions and anticipating a reversal of the present euphoria within a few days or weeks,” he wrote. “We’re not quite as cynical – the volume and coordinated nature of China’s stimulus steps overnight may not qualify as ‘bazooka’, but it’s close.

— Fred Imbert

Small caps are poised to see massive gains over the next few months, according to Richard Bernstein of Richard Bernstein Advisors.

“The reason, I think, that we’re such big bulls on mid-caps and small caps is that that’s where the earnings growth is forecasted to be,” the firm’s CEO and chief investment officer told CNBC’s “The Exchange” on Monday. “By the end of this year [or] early next year, we’re going to find that small caps … are going to grow at a multiple of what, say, the ‘Magnificent Seven’ are going to grow at.”

He added that while this small-cap performance is not particularly unusual in a trough, it is unusual for it to be happening when the Federal Reserve is “actually easing into this accelerating profits environment” rather than tightening.

“As profits rev up, we should see, normally, the economy just gets stronger, naturally,” he continued. “Now we’ve got the Fed easing on top of that. That’s like putting fuel on the fire.”

When looking at deglobalization as a key investment theme, Bernstein anticipates that midcap industrial stocks that have a focus on the U.S. economy in particular will be the “big growth beneficiaries.”

“As globalization contracts, we have to realize that it’s not just semiconductors that open up the United States to national security implications,” he said. “It’s the fact that we don’t produce anything here in the United States. That’s basically what our trade deficit shows. We think that presents a tremendous opportunity.”

— Sean Conlon

Check out the companies making headlines in extended trading:

• Snowflake — Shares of the data cloud company fell 3% after Snowflake announced a proposed private placement of $2 billion of convertible senior notes.
• AAR — The defense stock rose nearly 4%. In the first fiscal quarter, AAR reported adjusted earnings of 85 cents per share, up 9% from the year-ago period. Revenue came in at $661.7 million, up 20% from the prior year.

The full list can be found here.

— Hakyung Kim

U.S. stock futures were flat Monday night.

Dow Jones Industrial Average futures slipped just 23 points, or 0.05%. Futures tied to the S&P 500 and Nasdaq 100 inched down 0.06% and 0.1%, respectively.

— Hakyung Kim