US equities touched a two-month low early on but recovered from the worst levels of the day to finish above the lows from Friday and Monday. That’s little comfort ahead of a pivotal Fed decision and with bonds slumping.

• S&P 500 -44 points, or 1.1%, to 3855
• Nasdaq -0.9%
• Russell 2000 -1.4%
• DJIA -1.0%
• Toronto TSX Comp -0.9%

The good news is that the best days of the year to own stocks are Fed decision days. Psychologically, people fear the worst and if there’s any silver of good news, it leads to some relief. The sun will come up on Thursday, no matter what Powell says tomorrow.

• Dow industrial average +197.26 points or 0.64% at 31019.69
• S&P index +26.56 points or 0.69% at 3899.88
• NASDAQ index up 86.63 points or 0.76% at 11535.03
• Russell 2014.65 points or 0.81% at 1812.84

Looking at the sectors of the S&P index only to work lower – Real estate and healthcare. The healthcare sector fell -0.54% while the real estate sector fell -0.22%.

The strongest gaining sectors were:

• materials which rose 1.63%.
• Consumer discretionary which rose 1.34%
• industrials which rose 1.33%, and
• utilities which rose 1.32%

Closing changes for the main US markets:

• S&P 500 -0.6%
• Nasdaq composite -0.8%
• Russell 2000 -1.7%
• DJIA -0.4%

On the week:

• &P 500 -4.8% — worst since week ending June 17
• Nasdaq composite -5.5%
• Russell 2000 -4.9%
• DJIA -4.1%

Now for more bad news: There’s an outside bearish reversal on the weekly chart of the S&P 500 (and the Nasdaq as well).