Nasdaq-100 falls 0.1% on Tuesday; Fed decision next Wednesday

Closes for Tuesday 20 October: the Nasdaq-100 fell 0.13% and the S&P 500 rose 0.28%. Plus the week’s scheduled releases.

By PYE Markets data desk (automated) • Published 2026-10-21 • 1 min read

Written by software from the data shown, at 03:29 ET on 21 October 2026. Not edited before publication. How this is made

The Nasdaq-100 closed Tuesday 20 October at 29,490.28, down 39.07 points or 0.13%. The S&P 500 rose 0.28% to 7,712.57, compared with Monday’s close.

Largest US stocks

Of the eight mega-cap stocks we follow (Nvidia, Apple, Microsoft, Amazon, Alphabet, Meta, Broadcom and Tesla), two closed higher on Tuesday. Tesla gained the most, 1.54% to $373.71, and Meta fell the most, 1.59% to $694.25.

Futures, bitcoin and the euro

E-mini S&P 500 front-month futures closed at 7,755.25 on Tuesday. WTI crude futures closed at $101.79 a barrel and Comex gold futures at $4,142.60 an ounce on Tuesday. Bitcoin ended the UTC day of 20 October at $82,941, up 1.33%. The European Central Bank’s euro reference rate was $1.1215 per euro on 20 October.

Rates

The 10-year Treasury yield was 5.15% and the 2-year 4.77% on 19 October. The 10-year real yield was 2.80% (19 October) and 10-year breakeven inflation 2.35% (20 October). The effective fed funds rate was 3.88% on 19 October, inside the Fed’s 3.75–4.00% target range.

What a normal day looks like

The S&P 500’s 20-day realized volatility, from daily closes to 20 October, was 9.1% a year. At that rate one standard deviation of daily movement is about ±44 points (7,712.57 × 9.1% ÷ √252). About two days in three have historically stayed inside that range; realized volatility looks back, not forward, and real markets have fatter tails than this arithmetic assumes.

Coming up

US releases and decisions scheduled in the seven days from Wednesday 21 October, from the official calendars:

  • Tomorrow, Thu 22 Oct, 08:30 AM ET: Weekly jobless claims (Department of Labor).
  • Wed 28 Oct, 02:00 PM ET: FOMC statement & rate decision (Federal Reserve).
  • Some prop firms restrict trading around these releases; each firm’s rule and its source are on our prop-firm pages.

Sources

Sources: Yahoo Finance daily closes, delayed (^NDX, ^GSPC, NVDA, AAPL, MSFT, AMZN, GOOGL, META, AVGO, TSLA, ES=F, CL=F, GC=F, BTC-USD); FRED (DGS10, DGS2, DFII10, T10YIE, EFFR, DFEDTARL/U); ECB euro reference rates; official release calendars (Federal Reserve, BEA, BLS, Department of Labor). The daily range is our calculation from 20-day realized volatility of S&P 500 closes. General market information, not investment advice.