Stocks slip ahead of the Fed

Capital Wealth Planning market strategist Jeff Saut and Cresset Wealth Advisors’ Jack Ablin add their analysis to this week’s economic numbers.

U.S. stocks slipped Tuesday as the Federal Reserve kicked off its two-day policy meeting and earnings season rolled on.

A quiet session saw the S&P 500 hover near its record-high close reached on Monday. The Dow Jones Industrial Average and Nasdaq remained just below their own record peaks.

‘After the Bell’ reports the S&P 500 closing at record highs on Monday and which stocks contributed to these high numbers.

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The major averages saw little reaction to the news that House leadership plans to forge ahead with an impeachment resolution as traders instead looked ahead to the Fed's decision on rates due Wednesday. Traders are forecasting the Fed will cut rates -- by 0.25 percent -- for a third time this year. Market participants will be paying close attention to what the central bank says about future policy in the press conference following the decision as well as the statement.

Ticker	Security	Last	Change	Change %
I:DJI	DOW JONES AVERAGES	44296.51	+426.16	+0.97%
SP500	S&P 500	5969.34	+20.63	+0.35%
I:COMP	NASDAQ COMPOSITE INDEX	19003.651134	+31.23	+0.16%

Meanwhile, a busy week for corporate earnings had a big impact on individual names.

General Motors took a $2.9 billion hit related to the six-week long United Auto Workers strike, but shares gained after earnings and revenue topped Wall Street expectations.

Google-parent Alphabet fell after reporting mixed quarterly results. The search giant said higher ad sales were offset by rising costs.

Elsewhere, Beyond Meat posted its first quarterly profit, but shares were hit hard as the company said it will spend more and give discounts. Additionally, the lockup period expired on Tuesday, meaning early investors could begin sell their shares.

Grubhub was under pressure after reporting disappointing third-quarter sales and forecasting fourth-quarter sales well below expectations.

Ticker	Security	Last	Change	Change %
GM	GENERAL MOTORS CO.	58.53	+2.85	+5.12%
GOOGL	ALPHABET INC.	164.76	-2.87	-1.71%
BYND	BEYOND MEAT INC.	4.89	-0.12	-2.40%
GRUB	NO DATA AVAILABLE	-	-	-

In other news, Boeing shares gained ground after CEO Dennis Muilenberg faced a grilling on Capitol Hill over what and when the aviation giant knew about the problems with its MCAS stall-prevention software that led to two fatal accidents.

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Fiat Chrysler rallied after The Wall Street Journal reported it's in talks with Peugeot-parent PSA to form a $50 billion auto behemoth in an all stock deal.

Ticker	Security	Last	Change	Change %
BA	THE BOEING CO.	149.27	+5.87	+4.09%
FCAU	NO DATA AVAILABLE	-	-	-

Looking at Treasurys, light buying pushed the 10-year yield down 1.8 basis points at 1.835 percent.

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Ken Martin and the Associated Press contributed to this article.