U.S. stocks in New York opened lower on the 12th, local time, amid fallout from an investigation into Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 4.4 points, or 0.01%, to 49,499.67 from the previous session. The Standard & Poor's (S&P) 500 opened down 22.2 points, or 0.32%, at 6,944.12. The tech-heavy Nasdaq composite opened down 94.5 points, or 0.40%, at 23,576.877.
As U.S. federal law enforcement launched an investigation into Powell over alleged false testimony related to renovation work at the Fed's headquarters, concerns about the Fed's independence appeared to weigh on the market. The Fed has been renovating its headquarters building in Washington, D.C., since 2022, and the total cost is reported to be $2.5 billion (about 3.7 trillion won), roughly $700 million over the original budget.
A one-year cap proposal on credit card interest rates also appeared to pressure financial stocks. President Trump had released a plan to limit credit card rates to a maximum of 10% starting Jan. 20. For these reasons, early losses were led by bank stocks. Capital One was trading down 5.73% as of 9:50 a.m. Citigroup fell 3%. JPMorgan and Bank of America also fell more than 1%.