US benchmark equity indexes ended higher on Monday as traders assessed remarks by two Federal Reserve officials supporting the central bank's recent decision to cut interest rates by 50 basis points. Atlanta Fed President Raphael Bostic and Minneapolis Fed President Neel Kashkari emphasized that the Federal Open Market Committee made the correct decision at the recent meeting, although future policy directions would likely hinge on incoming economic data.
Bostic, an FOMC voting member this year, expressed, 'My residual concern about inflation might have led me to settle on a relatively small first move last week -- say, 25 basis points. But such a move would belie growing uncertainty about the trajectory of the labor market.' In related economic news, US private-sector output growth fell to a two-month low in September amid continued weakness in manufacturing, with the one-year headline outlook deteriorating notably, according to S&P Global's flash purchasing managers' index.
Additionally, the oil market witnessed fluctuations with November West Texas Intermediate crude oil declining by $0.54 to $70.46 per barrel, while November Brent crude, the global benchmark, was last seen down $0.51 at $73.98. In the tech sector, Intel saw a rise of 3.3% as Apollo Global Management reportedly offered to invest as much as $5 billion in the chipmaker.
Conversely, General Motors revealed plans to lay off 1,695 workers at its Fairfax assembly facility in Kansas, leading to a nearly 2% slump in the automaker's shares..