US stocks pulled back from records on Tuesday as the Federal Reserve kicked off its September policy meeting.

The benchmark S&P 500 (^GSPC) and the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite (^IXIC) slipped roughly 0.1%. The Dow Jones Industrial Average (^DJI) fell about 0.3%.

In an otherwise light week on economic data, investors received the latest figures on retail sales on Tuesday showing strong consumer spending despite sticky inflation and a wobbly labor market. Retail sales in August rose 0.6% from the prior month, more than the 0.2% expected.

In other news, the Senate narrowly confirmed Stephen Miran, President Trump's Fed pick, in a 48-47 vote on Monday evening — a day before the central bank's policy meeting kicks off Tuesday. The move has put Miran in place just in time to cast a crucial vote on the direction of interest rates.

Though Miran has said he would act independently, his intention to take a leave of absence — but not resign — from his current role as a White House advisor has raised questions about the future of Fed independence, especially as Trump pursues firing Fed governor Lisa Cook.

On Monday, the S&P 500 (^GSPC) and Nasdaq Composite (^IXIC) climbed to new record highs. US-China trade talks and anticipation Fed officials will announce a rate cut at its next meeting boosted sentiment.

Tesla (TSLA) stock rose 2% on Tuesday after wiping out its year-to-date losses on Monday following CEO Elon Musk purchased shares in the EV maker for the first time since 2020.

Oracle (ORCL) added to Monday's gains as CBS News reported that the company was among a consortium of firms included in a US-China TikTok deal. Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping are expected to finalize the deal and discuss trade on Friday.

But the main event of the week lands Wednesday when the Fed will announce its decision on rates. Markets are confident policymakers will cut rates due to a slowdown in the labor market, despite persistently sticky price increases. Traders currently see a 96% chance of a 25 basis-point cut and a 4% chance of a jumbo reduction.

US stocks retreated from record highs on Tuesday as investors focused on Wednesday's Federal Reserve rate decision.

The S&P 500 (^GSPC) slipped about 0.1%, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite (^IXIC) dropped below the flatline. The Dow Jones Industrial Average (^DJI) dropped more than 100 points, or roughly 0.2%.

Investors turned their attention to Wednesday's highly anticipated Fed rate decision following a two-day meeting that kicked off on Tuesday. The market widely anticipates policymakers cutting interest rates by 25 basis points.

Oil prices jumped 1% on Tuesday as investors assessed the threat to Russian energy supplies following Ukrainian drone attacks on refineries, and the impact a potential Federal rate cut decision could have on demand.

West Texas Intermediate (CL=F) futures surpassed $64 per barrel, while Brent (BZ=F) futures rose above $68 per barrel.

Ukraine upped its attacks on Russian ports and energy infrastructure, prompting supply shock worries.

Meanwhile, investors expect the Federal Reserve to cut interest rates by at least 25 basis points on Wednesday following its two-day policy meeting, potentially spurring demand from increased economic activity.

Despite a recent rise in oil prices, WTI and Brent are down about 9% and 8% respectively, year to date.

Yahoo Finance's Brooke DiPalma reports:

US retail sales in August were stronger than expected. But resilient American shoppers are still looking for deals wherever they can find them, with a weakening labor market and tariff-related inflation fears still swirling.

Retail sales in August rose 0.6%, more than the 0.2% increase that was expected by Wall Street economists. In the key back-to-school shopping month, sales at electronics and appliance stores increased 0.3%.

Sales growth in clothing and clothing accessories, as well as sporting goods, hobby, musical instrument, and book stores was even better, rising 1% and 0.8%, respectively. At nonstore retailers, which includes e-commerce, sales rose 2%.

In an interview with Yahoo Finance on Wednesday, Best Buy (BBY) CEO Corie Barry said that while its business continues to point to a \\"steady\\" consumer, shoppers remain on the lookout for deals.

\\"We see almost everyone looking for value now,\\" Barry said. \\"We actually are seeing a consumer ... bifurcated a bit, [that's] still willing to spend if they really feel like it's a great value.\\"

Read the full story here.

Yahoo Finance's Allie Canal reports:

Wall Street fund managers are piling back into equities, even as the economic backdrop turns shakier.

Bank of America's (BAC) latest Global Fund Manager Survey, released Tuesday, showed global equity allocations for September rose to a seven-month high while average cash balances held steady at just 3.9% for the third straight month — a level that often signals caution as investors run short on dry powder.

Still, BofA strategist Michael Hartnett noted sentiment hasn't tipped into full-blown euphoria. That would require cash to fall below 3.7% or equity allocations to climb above 30%. At current levels, with 28% of fund managers overweight on global equities, investors are bullish but not yet at the \\"hubris\\" point that has historically marked a contrarian sell signal.

Even so, that optimism is bleeding into markets: The S&P 500 (^GSPC) closed at another record on Monday, while the Nasdaq stretched its winning streak to six straight all-time highs.

Strategists at Wells Fargo, Barclays, Deutsche Bank, and Yardeni Research have all lifted their S&P 500 forecasts in recent days, citing resilient earnings, the AI investment cycle, and an expected easing of interest rates by the Federal Reserve as the backbone of the market's next leg higher.

Read the full story here.

Yahoo Finance's Francisco Velasquez reports:

President's Trump's latest idea to scrap quarterly earnings in favor of semi-annual reports is stirring debate across corporate America.

\\"I think I'd be OK either way,\\" Okta (OKTA) CEO Todd McKinnon said on Yahoo Finance's Opening Bid. \\"I do like the opportunity to talk to investors every quarter about the business and the future and the vision of what we're trying to do.\\"

Still, he added, \\"I do think sometimes the industry gets too obsessed with the quarterly numbers ... from a single quarter.\\"

For McKinnon, a good balance would involve reporting a little less frequently \\"but having long-term strategic conversations with investors.\\"

Okta posted Q2 earnings that beat on its top and bottom lines, fueled in part by global organizations and government agencies. Revenue hit $728 million, topping consensus estimates of $711 million, according to Bloomberg data. Earnings per share came in $0.91, versus $0.84 expected.

Read the full story here.

Hims & Hers (HIMS) shares dropped 7% Tuesday after the US Food and Drug Administration posted a warning letter sent to the company on Sept. 9 stating that it made false or misleading claims in its marketing of its compounded semaglutide products.

The FDA's public posting of the letter comes after the New York Times obtained a copy and reported some of the details last week.

Hims & Hers stock has had a volatile year, but shares are up roughly 107% in 2025. In June, the stock suffered after Danish pharmaceutical giant Novo Nordisk (NVO) ended its partnership with HIMS, accusing the company of \\"deceptive\\" marketing.

HIMS is one of the top ten most shorted stocks in the US, according to an S&P Global Market Intelligence Data, with some 30% of the company's shares currently sold short.

Yahoo Finance's Allie Canal reports:

The S&P 500 (^GSPC) keeps notching record highs even as hiring cools and unemployment rises — “the curious case of a jobless expansion,\\" as JPMorgan dubs it.

The bet is straightforward: Weaker jobs push the Fed to cut interest rates, lower rates lift valuations, and slower wage growth fattens margins.

It may sound counterintuitive — rising unemployment and rising stocks don't usually go together — but it's not without precedent.

\\"We have seen rising stocks and unemployment before,\\" Piper Sandler's Michael Kantrowitz said, pointing to past cycles in the 1950s, 1960s, and early 1990s when weak jobs pulled rates lower and fueled equity rallies.

Goldman Sachs strategist David Kostin put it bluntly: \\"A cooling labor market is a tailwind to corporate profits, all else equal,\\" since wages, the biggest line item on most companies' balance sheets, are decelerating.

In other words, what hurts workers can help lift stocks. Add in AI investments and still-resilient earnings, and Wall Street forecasters are now calling for the S&P 500 to climb as high as 7,000 by year-end.

Read more in The Takeaway from today's Morning Brief.

Shares of Klarna (KLAR) rose as much as 4% Tuesday before paring gains as Wall Street analysts initiated coverage of the Swedish buy now, pay later leader following its successful debut on the New York Stock Exchange last week.

Analysts at Needham and Morningstar initiated coverage of Klarna with Hold ratings, while Compass Point Research analyst Dominick Gabriele began covering the stock with a Buy rating.

Gabriele wrote in a note to clients Monday that the buy now, pay later (BNPL) space \\"has high volume growth rates\\" as payments become digitized.

He said that given BNPL industry growth combined with \\"numerous company specific opportunities, including Klarna penetrating further into the US,\\" he expects the company to outperform its peers.

\\"As Klarna pushes into the US they are likely to be a market share taker against current BNPL US incumbents both in Pay Later and longer duration BNPL products,\\" Gabriele wrote.

Klarna was up nearly 1% in midday trading as the major stock indexes reversed earlier gains.

Warner Bros. Discovery (WBD) shares sank 8% Tuesday following downgrades from TD Cowen and MorningStar analysts to Hold from Buy on Monday, per Bloomberg data.

TD Cowen analyst Douglas Creutz said the stock has risen \\"well beyond our $14 price target following last week's unsubstantiated report that Paramount SkyDance (PSKY) may be considering a bid for the company.\\"

Warner Bros. shares spiked close to 50% in just two trading days last week after a Wall Street Journal report said Paramount Skydance was preparing a majority-cash bid for the media conglomerate — a potential move that could set off a Hollywood bidding war and reshape the global streaming landscape, Yahoo Finance's Allie Canal reported.

Creutz pointed to \\"the speculative nature of the current [WBD stock] rally and the elevated risk profile at these levels.\\"

Creutz said that while a Paramount Skydance offer for the company \\"may come in ... we don't love the risk-reward here given the potential for WBD shares to quickly round trip to $11-$12 if the bid doesn't materialize.\\"

Ralph Lauren (RL) shares fell more than 1% Tuesday as the fashion company gave a three year financial outlook that disappointed investors.

The company said in an update Tuesday that it sees revenue growing in the mid-single digits over the next three years. Ralph Lauren reported revenue rising roughly 6.8% to nearly $7.1 billion in its 2025 fiscal year. That's after climbing about 3% to just over $6.6 billion in the previous year.

\\"The Company's outlook is based on its best assessment of the current geopolitical and macroeconomic environment, including inflationary pressures, tariffs and other consumer spending-related headwinds, global supply chain disruptions and foreign currency volatility, among other factors,\\" it said in the statement.

Shares in Ralph Lauren are up 34% in 2025.

Tesla (TSLA) and Amazon (AMZN) led the \\"Magnificent Seven\\" tech stocks as the Nasdaq Composite (^IXIC) pulled back from a record high.

Tesla jumped nearly 2% after turning positive for the year Monday. That gain came despite news Tuesday that the EV maker faces another probe from US auto safety regulators, this time over whether some of its doors are defective.

Amazon climbed more than 1% as the e-commerce giant announced its October Prime Day sales dates. Apple (AAPL) share edged up 1% as its latest watches were set to hit the market later this week.

Nvidia (NVDA), Microsoft (MSFT), and Alphabet (GOOGL, GOOG) fell fractionally.

Oracle (ORCL) stock rose nearly 3% on Tuesday after CBS News reported that the company will be among a consortium of firms that are part of the preliminary US-China deal to enable TikTok to continue operations.

Meanwhile, CNBC reported that the two countries' agreement would allow Oracle to continue its current cloud deal with TikTok. Oracle's servers are used to store TikTok's American user data, part of an initiative called Project Texas, launched by TikTok around 2022.

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said at a press conference Monday that the US and China agreed on a framework for a TikTok deal during trade talks in Madrid, ahead of a US ban of the social media app. Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping are set to speak on Friday to \\"complete\\" the agreement.

Read the full story here.

As gold (GC=F) continued to climb to new records, it surpassed $3,700 an ounce for the first time Tuesday after the asset saw an all-time high of around $3,685 an ounce Monday.

The jump puts gold up 44% for the year, just as the US Dollar (DX=F) fell, sinking to a four year low against the euro.

The moves come ahead of the Federal Reserve's highly anticipated policy meeting Wednesday, when the central bank is widely expected to cut interest rates. Traders were pricing in 96% odds of a 25 basis point cut Tuesday and a 4% chance of a jumbo cut, unchanged from the previous day, according to CME Group.

Novo Nordisk stock rose more than 2% Tuesday as the Ozempic and Wegovy maker said it plans to apply for US approval for a high-dose obesity shot.

Novo Nordisk chief scientific officer Martin Holst Lange remarked on the company's plans to seek approval from the Food and Drug Administration for the high dose version of its weight loss shot Wegovy during the European Association for the Study of Diabetes conference in Vienna, Bloomberg reported.

Also boosting shares, the Danish drugmaker's medication for diabetes, Rybelsus, became the first pill version of a GLP-1 drug approved by European regulators to reduce the risk of cardiovascular disease, Barron's reported Monday.

Even with Tuesday's gain, shares in the pharmaceutical giant are down 34% for the year.

The S&P 500 (^GSPC) and the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite (^IXIC) nudged higher on Tuesday after climbing to fresh records during the previous trading session.

The benchmark S&P 500 edged less than 0.1% higher at the open, and the Nasdaq(^IXIC) rose around 0.2%. The Dow Jones Industrial Average (^DJI) fell more than 0.1%.

The gains Tuesday come after the Senate confirmed President Trump's pick, Stephen Miran, as a Federal Reserve board governor and a retail sales update showed consumers staying resilient despite a weakening labor market and continued inflation.

Americans just keep spending.

Retail sales in August rose 0.6% from the prior month, more than the 0.2% expected and the latest sign that US consumers continue to be resilient in the face of a labor market that has shown some signs of stress.

Excluding spending on cars and gas, sales rose 0.7% last month.

The largest category increases were seen in spending at clothing stores and nonstore retailers — which captures e-commerce spending — suggesting a strong back-to-school shopping season. The retail sales data is not adjusted for inflation.

\\"Net, net, the consumer hasn’t pulled the plug on the economy yet,\\" said Chris Rupkey, chief economist at FWDBONDS, \\"and until they do, growth will continue to chug along at a moderate pace that seems to defy gravity in the face of rising tariff costs and store-bought prices.\\"

Economic data: Retail sales preliminary reading (August); Import price index (August); Export price index (August); Industrial production (August); Capacity utilization (August); Business inventories (July); NAHB Housing Market Index (September)

Earnings calendar: Ferguson Enterprises (FERG)

Here are some of the biggest stories you may have missed overnight and early this morning:

'Jobless expansion' fuels bull case as Fed rate cut looms

Senate confirms Trump pick Stephen Miran as Fed governor

Trump bid to fire Cook before Fed rates meeting blocked by court

US-China trade talks resume as TikTok deal in play

Wall Street raises alarm on Trump ending quarterly earnings

Supreme Court tariff ruling could 'cause massive uncertainty'

Valuation angst shifts from Big Tech to rest of S&P 500

US Treasury Secretary Bessent praises Bullard in search for Fed chief

US Treasurys are leading global bond markets this year as expectations of a Federal Reserve rate cut overturn bearish sentiment.

Bloomberg News reports:

US government securities have returned 5.8% in 2025, the best result among the world’s 15 biggest debt markets in local-currency terms, based on Bloomberg indexes. In a sign of the rally’s magnitude, the extra yield on Treasuries over their global peers — while still significant — has dropped to a three-year low.

“The Fed isn’t cutting into a strong economy, it’s cutting into weakness and this should form the basis for Treasuries to outperform,” said Prashant Newnaha, senior Asia-Pacific rates strategist at TD Securities in Singapore, who has covered debt markets for 25 years. “By comparison, Japan to the UK to France, all have problems spanning fiscal to politics that’s bludgeoning sentiment on their debt.”

Read more here.

Bloomberg reports:

Gold (GC=F) hit another fresh record, as investors bet on a Federal Reserve rate cut this week and weighed the scope for more monetary easing in coming months.

Bullion on Tuesday surpassed Monday’s all-time high of around $3,685 an ounce, where it was also supported by a gauge of the US dollar falling to the lowest in more than seven weeks. While a rate cut this week is priced in by markets, the Fed will also release its quarterly update of economic and rate forecasts, dubbed the dot plot, and Chair Jerome Powell will hold his post-decision press conference.

Gold has surged more than 40% this year, outpacing major assets such as the S&P 500 index, and recently surpassed its inflation-adjusted peak reached in 1980. Persistent trade and geopolitical uncertainties, along with concerted purchases from central banks and inflows to exchange-traded funds, have added to the momentum. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. has forecast bullion could approach $5,000 an ounce if just 1% of privately-held Treasuries shift to the precious metal.

Read more here.