Stock Market Today: Dow Falls 1100 Points After Fed Decision ...

Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell's press conference did little to soften the stock market’s slide.

The Dow was down 780 points, or 1.8%, after Powell wrapped up the question and answer portion of his press conference. The S&P 500 was down 2.3%. The Nasdaq Composite was down 3.2%.

Only 46 S&P 500 stocks were rising, which would extend the index’s streak of negative breadth to 13 days. The Dow would also bring its losing streak to 10 days, which is its longest streak of daily declines since 1974.

The central bank opted for a quarter-point cut, but forecasts from policymakers suggested much more uncertainty for the path forward for inflation and rates in 2025.

The yield on the 2-year Treasury note was up to 4.363%. The 10-year yield was up to 4.499%.

The CBOE Volatility Index surged 22% to 19.36. A reading of 20 more signals heightened volatility.

Rosenberg Research's David Rosenberg writes that though central bank officials only forecast two quarter-point cuts for 2025, the combination of revisions to payrolls, higher unemployment, and disinflation momentum can bump estimates back up to four in the new year.

"As we have seen for the better part of the past fifteen months, it doesn’t really take that much for the central bank to change its cadence," Rosenberg writes.