Equities Rise Intraday as Markets Parse Fed Officials' Comments

02:26 PM EDT, 09/22/2025 (MT Newswires) -- US benchmark equity indexes rose intraday, following record-high closings in the previous session, as markets evaluated the latest remarks by two Federal Reserve officials.

The Nasdaq Composite was up 0.6% at 22,758.2 after midday Monday, while the S&P 500 rose 0.4% to 6,690.1. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was 0.2% higher at 46,402. Among sectors, technology paced the gainers, while communication services and consumer staples saw the biggest drops.

St. Louis Fed President Alberto Musalem said there's "limited room" for reducing the central bank's benchmark lending rate further without monetary policy becoming "overly accommodative."

"Overemphasizing the labor market objective runs a risk of excessive policy easing, which could cause a further steepening of the yield curve, a rise in the term premium or an increase in inflation expectations," Musalem said. "Any of those effects could do more harm than good to the labor market and contribute to more persistent above-target inflation."

Separately, newly appointed Fed Governor Stephen Miran said the "appropriate" fed funds rate is likely in the mid-2% area, roughly 2 percentage points lower than current policy.

"Leaving policy restrictive by such a large degree brings significant risks for the Fed's employment mandate," he said.

Last week, the Federal Open Market Committee reduced interest rates by 25 basis points to a range of 4% to 4.25%, noting increased downside risks to employment and signaling further policy easing later in 2025. Miran preferred a 50-basis-point reduction at the meeting, and was the sole dissenter.

US Treasury yields were mixed intraday Monday, with the 10-year rate little changed at 4.14% and the two-year rate adding one basis point to 3.59%.

The Trump administration's move to impose a $100,000 fee on new H-1B visa applications could particularly harm the technology industry that's heavily reliant on international skilled labor, analysts said.

On Friday, President Donald Trump signed a proclamation, mandating the new fee under the H-1B work visa program to protect American workers. The fee doesn't apply to visa renewals or current holders, the White House clarified on Sunday.

The new policy poses "risks to sectors -- especially US technology -- that rely heavily on skilled workers from India and China," D.A. Davidson said in a note on Monday.

In company news, Nvidia (NVDA) plans to invest up to $100 billion in Microsoft (MSFT)-backed (MSFT) OpenAI under a partnership that aims at deploy at least 10 gigawatts of artificial intelligence data centers with Nvidia's (NVDA) systems, the companies said Monday.

Nvidia (NVDA) shares were up 3.5% intraday, among the best performers on the Dow, the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq.

Teradyne (TER) was the top gainer on the S&P 500, up nearly 13%, as Susquehanna raised its price target on the stock to $200 from $133.

Oracle (ORCL) was among the best performers on the S&P 500, up 4.5%. The cloud company promoted Clay Magouyrk and Mike Sicilia to co-chief executives, while moving former CEO Safra Catz to the role of executive vice chair.

West Texas Intermediate crude oil was up 0.1% at $62.75 a barrel intraday.

Gold rose 1.9% to $3,777.30 per troy ounce, while silver jumped 3.1% to $44.27 per ounce.

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