Nasdaq and bitcoin climb to record highs but Dow keeps losing ground

Shares of iPhone maker Apple, Google-parent Alphabet, electric car maker Tesla and AI-chipmaker Broadcom all rallied to new all-time highs, which helped power the tech-heavy Nasdaq to its own record peak. The Nasdaq closed up 1.24%, or 247.17 points, at a record 20,173.89.

The broad S&P 500 index ended up 0.38%, or 22.99 points, at 6,074.08 and the blue-chip Dow slipped for an eight consecutive session for its longest streak of declines since 2018. It closed down 0.25%, or 110.58 points, at 43,717.48.

Xem thêm : Bitcoin or altcoins? Who will win the holiday season with Santa rally

All eyes are on the Federal Reserve’s policy meeting, which ends on Wednesday afternoon. Although the Fed’s expected to trim its short-term, benchmark fed funds rate again by a quarter percentage point, many economists expect the central bank to signal a slower pace of rate cuts next year and revise its economic outlook.

“This could be the last cut for a while,” said Jacob Channel, senior economist at comparison site LendingTree. “Because the upcoming Trump Administration’s policies might cause a resurgence in inflation or otherwise throw the economy off balance, the Fed might choose to take a wait-and-see approach and hold rates steady at their January meeting.”