U.S. stocks edged lower on Tuesday as Wall Street continued a slow start to the week as investors continued to watch China’s COVID policy and anticipate Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell’s expected speech.
The S&P 500 (^GSPC) fell 0.2%, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite (^IXIC) fell 0.6%. The Dow Jones Industrial Average (^DJI) was virtually flat for the day.
The fall came after all three stock indexes ended lower on Monday, as protests over China’s tough COVID policies took a deep toll on global markets. The S&P 500 fell more than 1%, the first time it has done so on a Monday after Thanksgiving since 2008, according to Bespoke Investment Group. The US dollar weakened against a basket of peers after days of gains as the yuan fell.
In oil markets on Tuesday, global benchmark Brent rose 2.6% to trade above $86 a barrel. WTI crude oil rose about 2% on Tuesday, closing just below $79 a barrel after hitting year lows early on Monday.
The yield on the benchmark 10-year Treasury note rose to 3.755% from 3.701% on Monday.
Monday’s sell-off accelerated following remarks from two Federal Reserve officials, who stressed that the central bank’s rate hike campaign would continue. New York Fed President John Williams said Monday there was still “work to do” to bring inflation down.
“Stronger labor demand, stronger economic demand than I previously thought, and then somewhat higher underlying inflation, suggest a slightly higher trajectory for policy compared to September,” Williams told reporters Monday after an event hosted by the Economic Club of New York. .
At another event, St. Louis Fed President James Bullard said “we have a long way to go to get restrictive.” Bullard also pointed out that the Fed’s key target rates need to rise to at least a range of 5.00% to 5.25% from the current level of 3.75% to 4.00% to be “sufficiently restrictive.” to curb inflation.
All eyes are now on Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell’s speech at the Brookings Institution on Wednesday, the last speech before the Fed’s next rate-setting meeting in mid-December. However, “it’s unclear what more Powell could say that we haven’t heard from recent Fed speakers,” wrote Andrew Tyler, head of US Market Intelligence at JP Morgan. “While a Fed pivot is currently off the table, investors looking for a break are unlikely to find that support from Powell this week.”
Meanwhile, investors are also bracing for a busy week of economic data. Data from the S&P CoreLogic Case-Shiller National Home Price Index on Tuesday showed U.S. home prices fell 1% in September from August, posting a third straight monthly decline. The slowdown comes as mortgage rates jumped to nearly 7% from lows of nearly 3% in just 10 months.
The Conference Board’s consumer confidence index, the latest indicator of the strength of the US economy, fell to 100.2 in November from a revised 102.2 in October, as economists polled by Bloomberg called for a drops to 100.
In corporate news, Apple (AAPL) fell more than 2% on Tuesday following unrest at the world’s largest iPhone factory in Zhengzhou. The unrest in China has again raised fears of a shortfall of nearly 6 million iPhone Pros this year, Bloomberg reported.
Apple has also found itself on the wrong side of Elon Musk’s wrath, as the billionaire owner of Twitter tussles with the tech giant. Musk targeted the company on its Twitter ad spend and raised the prospect of a bigger battle over Twitter’s availability on Apple’s App Store.
Meanwhile, in the United States, Apple is also facing headwinds heading into next year, Oppenheimer analyst Martin Yang told Yahoo Finance Live on Tuesday.
Also in single-stock news, United Parcel Service (UPS) shares rose 2.8% as the Biden administration calls on Congress to act and pass legislation that would avert a railroad strike. UPS is the largest rail customer.
Shares of AMC Networks (AMCX) fell more than 5% on Tuesday as CEO Christina Spade left the company after less than three months in the role and the company announced it would cut 20% of its workforce.
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Dani Romero is a reporter for Yahoo Finance. Follow her on Twitter @daniromerotv
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