U.S. stocks finished lower Wednesday, with the S&P 500 closing out May with a small gain, as investors weighed remarks from Federal Reserve officials on monetary policy while awaiting a debt-ceiling vote by Congress.The Dow Jones Industrial Average DJIA closed 0.4% lower on Wednesday, while the S&P 500 SPX fell 0.6% and the Nasdaq Composite COMP shed 0.6%, according to preliminary data from FactSet. In remarks made Wednesday on the potential for interest rate hikes by the central bank at its June policy meeting, Philadelphia Fed President Patrick Harker said that “I am in the camp increasingly coming into this meeting thinking that we really should skip, not pause, but skip an increase.” Fed Gov. Philip Jefferson said Wednesday that skipping a rate hike “would allow the committee to see more data before making decisions about the extent of additional policy firming.”Meanwhile, investors are anticipating an expected vote Wednesday by the House on the U.S. debt-ceiling agreement reached by President Joe Biden and House Speaker Kevin McCarthy. U.S. stocks mostly climbed in May, with the technology-heavy Nasdaq finishing the month up around 5.8% while the S&P 500 eked out a 0.3% monthly gain and the Dow dropped 3.5%, according to preliminary FactSet data.
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