The daily business briefing: December 21, 2023

The Dow snaps a 9-day winning streak, regulators deny Apple's request to delay an Apple Watch sales ban, and more

Apple Watch display
Apple Watch display
(Image credit: Jeenah Moon / Bloomberg via Getty Images)

1. Stocks drop, ending Dow's 9-day winning streak

U.S. stocks plunged on Wednesday after a two-month hot streak. The Dow Jones Industrial Average, which had logged gains for nine straight trading sessions, dropped 475.92 points, or 1.3%. The S&P 500 and the Nasdaq fell 1.5%. The pullback came after the major U.S. indexes got a boost from the Federal Reserve, which last week signaled it anticipated cutting interest rates three times next year now that inflation is cooling. Since then, Fed leaders have tried to douse expectations of a rate reduction in March. The Dow hit a string of record highs and the S&P 500 was nearing a record, too, before Wednesday's losses. U.S. stock futures rose slightly early Thursday. The Wall Street Journal, CNBC

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Harold Maass, The Week US

Harold Maass is a contributing editor at The Week. He has been writing for The Week since the 2001 debut of the U.S. print edition and served as editor of TheWeek.com when it launched in 2008. Harold started his career as a newspaper reporter in South Florida and Haiti. He has previously worked for a variety of news outlets, including The Miami Herald, ABC News and Fox News, and for several years wrote a daily roundup of financial news for The Week and Yahoo Finance.