Por Ambar Warrick e Shashank Nayar
(Reuters) – US stock indexes hovered around stability on Monday, deviating from record highs even as US-listed Chinese companies slipped from tougher regulations in mainland China, a busy week amid the woes of technology balance sheets. There will also be a start and a monetary policy meeting of the Federal Reserve.
China announced sweeping new rules on tuition and online education companies last week, the latest in a series of tech action that rocked financial markets this year.
Shares of e-commerce conglomerate Alibaba Group and search engine Baidu Inc., the two largest Chinese companies listed in the United States, each fell more than 5%.
The two-day Fed meeting starting Tuesday will also be watched by investors, who are looking for more clues to the central bank’s planned monetary tightening as inflation has picked up in recent months.
“The Fed will not be clear in its language, and markets will pay more attention to more local Fed voices to get a better idea of the interest rate cycle,” said Sean O’Hara, president of Pacer ETF.
“If we start to see any signs of less support from the Fed, that would be cause for concern.”
At 11:23 (Eastern Time), the Dow Jones was down 0.2% at 34,992 points, while the S&P 500 was up 0.00136% at 4,412 points. The Nasdaq Technology Index rose 0.09% to 14,851 points.
High-weight tech companies Alphabet Inc., Apple Inc. and Microsoft Corp. are expected to release their balance sheets this week in the stock index.
