NEW YORK (AP) — U.S. stocks are hanging around their record heights on Tuesday as the countdown ticks toward what Wall Street expects will be the first cut of the year to interest rates by the Federal Reserve.

The S&P 500 fell 0.2%, coming off its latest all-time high. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 169 points, or 0.4%, as of 11:45 a.m. Eastern time, and the Nasdaq composite was 0.1% lower.

Stocks have run to records on expectations that the Fed will announce the first of a series of cuts to rates on Wednesday afternoon in hopes of giving the economy a boost. The job market has slowed so much that traders believe Fed officials now see it as the bigger danger for the economy than the threat of higher inflation because of President Donald Trump’s tariffs.

The Fed has been holdi

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