Dow trades 500 points lower in final hour of trade Wednesday, ahead of key inflation reading

The Dow was down more than 500 points Wednesday afternoon in the final hour of trade, as investors braced for Thursday’s key inflation reading and as several tight races left control of Congress up for grabs. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 508 points, or 1.5%, trading near 32,678, after falling more than 600 points at the session’s low. The S&P 500 index [s:spx] was off 1.6% and the Nasdaq Composite Index was 2% lower. Investors had been gearing up for a potential Republican sweep in the midterm elections. But results so far point to “anything even vaguely controversial in this Congress, which means we pretty much know that current fiscal policies will remain in place: no tax cuts and no major spending bills for the next two years,” said Brad McMillan, chief investment officer at Commonwealth Financial Network, in emailed comments. While all eyes will be on tomorrow’s release of the consumer-price index for October, investors also have been monitoring continued tumult in the crypto sector. Reports surfaced on Thursday that indicated Binance may be backing away from plans to take over assets of embattled crypto exchange FTX. Bitcoin was trading near $16,800 Thursday, near a two-year low, according to CoinDesk.

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