Stock Market Today: Indexes Close Lower As Data Clouds Rate Cut Views

• Indexes closed lower on Tuesday, led by a slide in tech stocks.
• The Nasdaq dropped almost 2%, while the Dow lost more than 150 points.
• Data showed strong growth in the services sector last month, while job openings stabilized in November.

Stock indexes reversed gains from earlier in the day to close lower on Tuesday as a fresh set of economic data triggered a bout of inflation fears, clouding rate cut views.

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The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell nearly 200 points, while the benchmark S&P 500 and the Nasdaq Composite also closed lower, down 1% and 2%, respectively.

Treasury yields, meanwhile, continued to surge, pushing the 10-year yield to its highest level since April. The yield ended Tuesday at 4.691%, up seven basis points.

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Here’s where US indexes stood at the 4:00 p.m. closing bell on Tuesday:

The losses come after a new set of economic data raised concerns over sticky inflation.

ISM data, released earlier today, showed quicker-than-expected growth in the U.S. services sector last month, while the latest JOLTs report showed job openings stabilized in November after a slowdown over the summer.

While the data shows strong economic activity and job growth, the latest numbers raised worries of sticky inflation, and prompted traders to lower expectations for further fiscal easing this year — in other words, the return of a “good news is bad news” sentiment.

Now, traders are pricing in increased odds of no further easing from the Federal Reserve this year, up to 18% from 13% a week ago, according to the CME FedWatch tool.

Vaccine stocks, including Moderna and Pfizer, ended higher on Tuesday after the US reported its first bird flu death on Monday.

Looking ahead to the rest of the week, on Wednesday, ADP will publish private payroll data, followed by the December nonfarm payrolls report on Friday. The report is expected to show US employers added 155,000 jobs last month and the unemployment rate is expected to remain at 4.2%.

Here’s what else is happening:

• Overbought bitcoin is vulnerable to a 13% sell-off, top technical analyst says
• Why Apple stock just got a rare downgrade to ‘sell’
• Goldman dials back its bullish gold forecast amid a dimmer outlook for rate cuts in 2025

In commodities, bonds, and crypto:

• West Texas Intermediate crude oil rose 0.9% to $74.25 a barrel. Brent crude, the international benchmark, was up 1% to $77.04 a barrel.
• Gold was up 0.7% to $2,656.60 an ounce.
• The 10-year Treasury yield jumped seven basis points to 4.691%.
• Bitcoin fell 5% to trade around $96,894.