Stocks Slide Ahead of Election, Fed Rate Decision; Nvidia overtakes Apple as most valuable company

Stock prices fell around midday Monday as investors prepare for the U.S. presidential election and the Federal Reserve's decision on interest rates later in the week.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average lost 0.7%, while the S&P 500 and Nasdaq Composite lost 0.2% and 0.1%, respectively. Stocks posted gains on Friday as earnings reports boosted technology stocks and the October jobs report reinforced expectations that the Fed will cut interest rates further. Nonetheless, the Nasdaq's seven-week winning streak snapped, while the S&P 500 and Dow posted weekly losses for the second straight day.

Shares of Nvidia (NVDA) rose more than 2% today after news late Friday that the AI ​​investor favorite would replace struggling chipmaker Intel (INTC) in the Dow later this week. Intel shares fell 4%.

With its gains early Monday, Nvidia overtook Apple (AAPL) as the world's most valuable company in terms of market capitalization. Apple lost about 0.5% after news over the weekend that Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway (BRK.A; BRK.B) continued to sell its shares in the iPhone maker in the third quarter.

Shares of Sherwin-Williams (SHW) rose nearly 4%, partly on news that the paint maker will be added to the price-weighted index of large companies, replacing chemical giant Dow Inc. (DOW).

Shares of plane maker Boeing (BA) rose 0.5% after rising more than 3% on Friday ahead of a vote today on the company's latest deal with the union representing machinists who have been striking for seven weeks.

After last week's deluge of earnings reports from major technology companies, the schedule for corporate results on Monday is relatively light. Constellation Energy (CEG) fell 10% this morning as a regulatory decision outweighed better-than-expected results, while Marriott (MAR) fell 2%. Shares of analytics software company Palantir (PLTR), due to report after the closing bell on Monday, fell about 0.5%.

As the corporate earnings schedule gathers pace in the coming days, investors are particularly focused on the presidential election on Tuesday and the Fed's interest rate decision on Thursday. The Fed, which cut interest rates in September for the first time in four years, is widely expected to cut interest rates by a quarter of a percentage point this week.

The 10-year Treasury yield, which reflects expectations for the economy and the direction of interest rates, fell sharply to 4.29% this morning, compared to 4.36% on Friday.

Crude oil futures rose more than 2% after news that the OPEC+ group of oil producing countries agreed to extend production cuts.

Gold futures were little changed from Friday at about $2,750 an ounce after rising to a record high above $2,800 last week, while Bitcoin was at $68,000, down from highs of over $69,000 on Monday.