One Day Before the Fed, Stocks Are Creeping Higher Anyway

Right now in New York, the S&P 500 sits at 7,620.31, up 0.46%, and the Nasdaq is at 26,212.65, up 0.89%. That's 0.28 points more than where things stood at my last check-in, 22:40, for the S&P, and 0.48 points more for the Nasdaq — the choppy open is smoothing out as the morning wears on.

Everyone's basically holding their breath ahead of tomorrow's Fed rate decision. The hangover from bond yields and oil prices surging together and dragging Wall Street down for two straight sessions is still lingering, and today opened mixed too — but in the middle of all that, cybersecurity names are the ones catching a bid while semiconductors and copper/minerals names are lagging. The won sits at 1,345.61 per dollar and the dollar index at 99.65, both edging higher, so the currency pressure hasn't fully lifted either. That's a different texture from yesterday's strong close in Korea, where the KOSPI finished up 1.37%.

With roughly four hours and fifty minutes left until the close, I'm watching whether this gentle climb holds up through the Fed announcement, or whether the wait-and-see mood thickens again. In my own book, Microsoft is still sitting on a +25.2% paper gain and ConocoPhillips on +5.3%, while Vertex is at -2.9% and NVIDIA at +1.3% — just where things stand so far, not today's move.