5 issues to know earlier than the inventory market opens Wednesday, September 18

Listed here are 5 key issues buyers have to know to begin the buying and selling day:

The S&P 500 ended Tuesday little modified as merchants await the Federal Reserve’s key rate of interest minimize resolution (extra on that under). The broad-market index touched a file excessive earlier in buying and selling and ended the time off the mark at simply 0.03% larger. The Dow Jones Industrial Common inched down 15.9 factors, or 0.04%, after additionally hitting a contemporary file through the session. The Nasdaq Composite added 0.2% for the day. The file highs for the S&P 500 and the Dow come throughout a traditionally robust interval for the market, as September has been the worst month for the benchmark over the previous 10 years, in line with FactSet information. Comply with reside market updates.

Federal Reserve conferences are sometimes predictable occasions, with policymakers telegraphing their intentions forward of time — however this time there’s an air of secrecy. Fed watchers are fairly certain there shall be some sort of charge minimize, however they’re divided on if will probably be the standard quarter-percentage-point, or 25-basis-point, charge discount, or a extra aggressive 50-basis-point minimize. The Federal Open Market Committee has held its benchmark fed funds charge on the highest degree in 23 years, a spread between 5.25%-5.5%, because it final raised charges in July 2023. Markets may even be watching to see what alerts assembly contributors ship about the place charges are anticipated to go from right here, in addition to unofficial forecasts for unemployment, gross home product and inflation.

Alaska Airways and Hawaiian Airways are cleared for merging. The Division of Transportation stated Tuesday that the 2 carriers might undergo with their $1.9 billion merger settlement, however they have to keep the worth of their frequent-flyer miles packages and keep a number of key routes. In addition they should maintain “essential air support” for rural areas, in addition to present ranges of service for passenger and cargo routes between the Hawaiian islands, U.S. Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg stated. The 2 airways stated in December, once they introduced plans to mix, that they might maintain every provider’s model however function below a single platform.

Tech transaction quantity has plummeted, falling to $544 billion final yr after peaking at $1.5 trillion in 2021, in line with Dealogic. To this point in 2024, tech mergers and acquisitions have hit $465 billion. Now, with the upcoming presidential election, Large Tech is “at a crossroads” after that stoop in dealmaking, Sergio Letelier, Hewlett Packard Enterprise’s head of company growth, informed CNBC’s Jordan Novet. “We don’t know which side of the fork the policy is going to go,” he stated. That is partially as a result of neither get together has supplied a lot readability on the matter. The Biden administration has thwarted the largest firms from pursuing offers, however the regulatory surroundings might be poised for a shake-up with the election.

Snap unveiled the fifth technology of its Spectacles augmented actuality glasses on Tuesday after years of making an attempt to interrupt into client {hardware}. The newest glasses, which might overlay digital graphics onto the bodily world, are solely accessible for builders, who should decide to paying $99 a month for a full yr in the event that they wish to develop any AR apps. Snap additionally stated it is partnering with ChatGPT maker OpenAI on synthetic intelligence instruments for the glasses. Snap’s announcement got here days earlier than rival Meta is anticipated to disclose its newest {hardware}. Learn extra about each firms’ struggles with client {hardware} right here.

— CNBC’s Hakyung Kim, Jeff Cox, Leslie Josephs, Jordan Novet and Jonathan Vanian contributed to this report.