Wall Street ends strong month on weaker note; focus on Fed meeting

U.S. stocks lost ground on Monday, with the major indexes closing out a strong month of gains on a weaker foot, as investor focus turned to the Federal Reserve's policy meeting this week.
The central bank is widely expected to raise interest rates by 75 basis points on Wednesday at the conclusion of its two-day policy meeting, but investors will look for any signals the Fed may be considering a deceleration in interest rate hikes in the future.
Hopes the Fed may pull back from its aggressive interest rate hike policy have lifted equities in recent weeks, with the S&P 500 notching a gain of nearly 9% over the past two weeks. The Dow booked its biggest monthly percentage gain since January 1976 and biggest October percentage gain since at least 1900.
Comments from Fed officials after the policy decision as well as labor market data later this week will help shape market expectations for future hikes starting at the December meeting.
For the month, the $Dow Jones Industrial Average(.DJI.US)$ jumped 13.95%, the $S&P 500 Index(.SPX.US)$ climbed 7.99% and the $Nasdaq Composite Index(.IXIC.US)$ advanced 3.9%. $Apple(AAPL.US)$ lost 1.54% after a Reuters report said production of its iPhones could slump by as much as 30% next month due to tightening COVID-19 curbs in China.
Megacap growth names such as $Amazon(AMZN.US)$ and $Alphabet-A(GOOGL.US)$ $Alphabet-C(GOOG.US)$ which have been under pressure in the rising rate environment, were also lower, down 0.94% and 1.85%, respectively.
Nearly all 11 S&P 500 sectors fell, with technology and communication services the worst performers with declines of more than 1%. Energy was the sole advancer ahead of remarks on oil companies by U.S. President Joe Biden later on Monday.
Energy companies such as $Chevron(CVX.US)$ and $Exxon Mobil(XOM.US)$ Mobil handily beaten profit estimates this quarter, benefiting from surging energy prices, in contrast to Big Tech firms that have largely disappointed investors.
With around half of the companies in the S&P 500 having reported their quarterly results so far, third-quarter earnings growth estimates stands at 4%, according to Refintiv data, slightly lower than the 4.1% last week.
$Global Payments(GPN.US)$ slumped 8.82% after the company forecast full-year revenue below estimates. $SPDR S&P 500 ETF(SPY.US)$ $Invesco QQQ Trust(QQQ.US)$