Stocks slide ahead of expected rate hike

Stocks slid for the second straight day on Tuesday as the Federal Reserve’s two-day monetary policy meeting opened. The central bank is expected to announce a 0.75% rate hike on Wednesday.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 79.75 points, or 0.24%, to close at 32,653.20. The S&P 500 fell 15.88 points, or 0.41%, to 3,856.10 and the Nasdaq Composite fell 97.30 points, or 0.89%, to 10,890.85.

Job vacancies rose sharply in September, beating analysts’ forecasts and stoking concerns that the Fed will continue to aggressively raise interest rates in a bid to control inflation.

A Labor Department report showed 10.72 million job openings in September, beating FactSet’s forecast of 9.85 million job openings and more than 500,000 recorded for August.

Among stocks that fell was Amazon (AMZN), which closed at $96.79, down $5.65 or 5.52%. Alphabet (GOOG) stock price fell $4.16, or 4.39%, to close at $96.50.

“Nowadays, good news is bad news,” Marco Pirondini, equities chief at Amundi US, told The Wall Street Journal. “We would probably prefer to see some slowdown in the economy so that inflation starts to come down and the Fed is able to slow its actions and rhetoric.”