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Stock Market Today: Stocks tumble amid political chaos in Washington
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U.S. stocks slumped lower in early Friday trading, putting the three major benchmarks on pace for their worst week of the year, as investors retreated from risk markets amid the ongoing political chaos in Washington.
Updated at 9:38 AM EST
Red open
The S&P 500 was marked 21 points, or 0.37%, in the opening minutes of trading, with the Nasdaq falling 165 points, or 0.84%
The Dow was marked 60 points lower while the mid-cap Russell 2000 slipped 9 points, or 0.41%.
Benchmark 10-year Treasury note yields were pegged at 4.506% while 2-year notes eased to 4.241%.
Updated at 8:45 AM EST
Steady Feddy
The Federal Reserve's preferred inflation gauge held steady last month, data indicated Friday, adding another layer of complexity to the central bank's near-term outlook on price pressures and rate cuts.
The Bureau of Economic Analysis' PCE Price Index showed core prices rose at an annual rate of 2.8% last month, matching the October reading and Wall Street's consensus forecast forecast.
Stocks pared earlier declines following the data release, with futures indicating a 33 point decline for the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq called 195 points lower.
Benchmark 10-year note yields were 2 basis points lower at 4.526% following the data release, while 2-year notes eased 2 basis points to 4.261%.
"The market woke up in a terrible mood – an unexpected government shutdown and a more-hawkish-than-expected Fed are to blame – but this morning’s inflation data came in lower-than-expected and took some of the edge off," said Chris Zaccarelli, chief investment officer for Northlight Asset Management.
Updated at 6:32 AM EST
Novo Nordisk's loss ...
... is Eli Lilly's ( LLY ) gain. Shares in the drugmaker surged in early trading after its Danish rival published data on its new experimental anti-obesity drug that missed its own targets.
Novo Nordisk said patients using CagriSema lost around 22.7% of their body weight using the new treatment compared with the group's forecast of around 25%. The results could challenge its effort to launch a replacement for its market-leading Wegovy drug.
Eli Lilly shares were last marked 9.6% higher in premarket trading to indicate an opening-bell price of $830.
Novo Nordisk's U.S.-listed shares fell 17.1% to $85.77.
Stock Market Today
Stocks ended lower on Thursday, while Treasury yields jumped and the dollar tested two-year highs against its global peers as markets failed to claw back losses triggered by hawkish Federal Reserve messaging that followed its final rate cut of the year on Wednesday.
The Fed's forecast in fact suggested caution from policymakers tied to the uncertainty surrounding President-elect Donald Trump's political and economic agendas, both of which were in evidence yesterday.
Based on the advice of billionaire Elon Musk, the President-elect had challenged an agreed bipartisan spending bill designed to avoid a government shutdown. Trump instead backed a watered-down version that ultimately failed to find support from Republican lawmakers.
The spending bill failure, as well as Trump's attempt to insert an extended suspension of the debt ceiling into the negotiations, could raise investors' concern about the passage of Trump-era tax cuts under the new Congress.
Shutdown showdown: GOP scrambles
That's left House Speaker Mike Johnson scrambling to make a deal prior to today's midnight shutdown deadline.
Trump also waded into the tariff debate by threatening new levies on the European Union unless its member states "make up their tremendous deficit with the United States by the large scale purchase of our oil and gas."
Related: Fed Chair Powell is 'adult in the room' as Trump hammers Congress
The collective actions have stocks moving sharply lower heading into the start of Friday trading, with futures contracts tied to the S&P 500 suggesting a 52-point opening-bell decline.
Futures linked to the Dow Jones Industrial Average, which snapped a nine-day losing streak last night, are priced for a 284 point pullback while the tech-focused Nasdaq is called 300 points lower.
CBOE Group's VIX index, meanwhile, has surged to the highest levels since August and was last marked at $25.82, suggesting traders expect daily swings of around 1.6%, or 95 points, for the S&P 500 over the next month.
European stocks slide
Stocks on the move beyond the normal market pullback include FedEx ( FDX ) , which rose 8.6% in the premarket after the package delivery group said it would sell its freight trucking division. The move offset a disappointing quarterly earnings report.
Nike ( NKE ) shares, meanwhile, fell 3.6% after it topped Wall Street forecasts for its fiscal-second-quarter earnings but issued a muted near-term sales outlook amid the ongoing turnaround under new CEO Elliott Hill.
More Wall Street Analysts:
In overseas markets, Trump's latest tariff threat pulled the Stoxx 600 benchmark 1.51% lower in Frankfurt trading, with Britain's FTSE 100 falling 0.96% in London.
Overnight in Asia, the Nikkei 225 ended the week with a 0.29% pullback while the MSCI ex-Japan index fell 1.2% into the close of trading.
Related: Veteran fund manager delivers alarming S&P 500 forecast