OCT 31 — Wall Street’s main stock indexes dipped in choppy trading today in the run-up to the Federal Reserve’s monetary policy meeting, while investors assessed the latest batch of earnings reports and parsed through more economic data.

Nvidia NVDA.O was a big drag, down 3.7 per cent after a report said US curbs could force the chip designer to cancel billions of dollars of orders to China.

Other major growth stocks such as Meta Platforms META.O and Microsoft MSFT.O fell between 0.4 per cent and 1 per cent.

Six of the 11 major S&P 500 sectors were trading lower, with information technology .SPLRCT leading losses.

On the earnings front, heavy-machinery maker CaterpillarCAT.N fell 6.3 per cent as the company’s dealer inventories rose and a large order backlog shrank, indicating that equipment demand is starting to slow. Drugmaker AmgenAMGN.O slipped 4.3 per cent after reporting third-quarter results.

Pfizer’s shares PFE.N fell 1.5 per cent after the drugmaker reported its first quarterly loss since 2019.

An October reading of Chicago PMI came in at 44 against expectations of 45, while a separate reading showed US labor costs increased solidly in the third quarter.

"The slightly stronger increase in the employment cost index in the third quarter is another sign that the earlier rapid easing in labour market conditions may be fading,” said Andrew Hunter, deputy chief US economist at Capital Economics.

"But the forward-looking evidence still suggests wage growth will slow further over the coming months.”

US equities are tracking their third straight month in the red, with the S&P 500 .SPX and the Nasdaq .IXIC on course for their worst October since 2018.

The Fed kicks off a two-day monetary policy meeting today. At the end of the meet the central bank is widely expected to hold interest rates steady, according to the CME Group’s FedWatch tool.

The Fed’s commentary on Wednesday would be crucial in assessing how long monetary policy could stay restrictive amid recent signs of economic strength.

Along with earnings, a slew of labor market data throughout the week will also be in focus, culminating in Friday’s non-farm payrolls report, for further clues on the strength of the US economy.

At 9:46 a.m. ET, the Dow Jones Industrial Average .DJI was down 92.67 points, or 0.28 per cent, at 32,836.29, the S&P 500 .SPX was down 5.35 points, or 0.13 per cent, at 4,161.47, and the Nasdaq Composite .IXIC was down 57.94 points, or 0.45 per cent, at 12,731.54.

PinterestPINS.N jumped 14.8 per cent as the image-sharing platform beat third-quarter revenue and profit estimates on a stabilising digital advertising market.

US-listed shares of Chinese companies such as JD.Com JD.O, Alibaba BABA.N, PDD Holdings PDD.O and Bilibili BILI.O shed between 1.5 per cent and 2.4 per cent after data showed China’s manufacturing activity unexpectedly contracted in October.

VF CorpVFC.N dropped 6.7 per cent after the Vans sneaker maker withdrew its annual forecast, while cloud solutions provider Arista NetworksANET.N gained 8.5 per cent on an upbeat fourth-quarter revenue outlook.

Sarepta TherapeuticsSRPT.O slumped 45.9 per cent as thae drug developer’s muscle disorder gene therapy failed in a late-stage trial. Shares of Sarepta’s client, Catalent CTLT.N, also fell 16.2 per cent.

Advancing issues outnumbered decliners by a 1.50-to-1 ratio on the NYSE and by a 1.09-to-1 ratio on the Nasdaq.

The S&P index recorded no new 52-week high and six new lows, while the Nasdaq recorded eight new highs and 126 new lows.

10 of 11 major S&P 500 sectors eye monthly losses. — Reuters