Stock market today: Indexes rise ahead of Fed's final policy meeting of the year

• US stocks rose Monday as investors await the Fed's interest rate decision on Wednesday.
• The Fed's final meeting of the year is expected to include a 25 basis points interest rate cut.
• Key economic data releases this week include US retail sales and November PCE.

US stocks moved higher on Monday in the last full trading week of the year.

The top event on investors' radar this week is the Federal Reserve's final Federal Open Market Committee meeting of the year, in which they're expected to cut interest rates by 25 basis points.

After the event, investors will be watching the Friday morning release of November Core PCE, which will help inform whether the Fed continues to cut rates in early 2025.

"For the remainder of the month, these are really the 2 key macro data points," Fundstrat's Tom Lee said in a note on Monday.

Lee added that he expects stocks to gravitate higher in the waning days of 2024, driven partly by seasonality and investor positioning that supports risk assets.

"We believe the seasonal dynamics (Dec finishes strong) and the relative positioning dynamics are supporting stocks into year-end," Lee said.

On the positioning front, Lee highlighted that 69% of institutional investment managers are underperforming the benchmark, so they are less likely to be selling stocks into year-end and are more inclined to buy any dips in the market.

Other economic data that will be released this week include US retail sales on Tuesday, housing starts and building permits on Wednesday, and revised third-quarter GDP on Thursday.

Here's where US indexes stood shortly after the 9:30 a.m. opening bell on Monday:

• S&P 500: 6,064.94, up 0.24%
• Dow Jones Industrial Average: 43,841.47, up 0.03% (+13.41 points)
• Nasdaq composite: 20,006.66, 0.40%

Here's what else is going on:

• Here is a complete rundown of Wall Street's 2025 S&P 500 targets.
• Nouriel Roubini is worried about another flare-up in inflation, which would sink the stock market.
• Here's why more companies are looking to follow MicroStrategy's footsteps and buy bitcoin.
• Here's how much bitcoin BlackRock recommends you own in your portfolio.

In commodities, bonds, and crypto:

• West Texas Intermediate crude oil declined 0.48% to $70.95 a barrel. Brent crude, the international benchmark, was lower by 0.46% to $74.15 a barrel.
• Gold was slightly higher by 0.12% to $2,679.10 an ounce.
• The 10-year Treasury yield dropped 1 basis point to 4.382%.
• Bitcoin declined 0.19% to $104,222.