WASHINGTON (dpa-AFX) - After failing to sustain an early move to the upside, stocks gave back ground over the course of the trading session on Tuesday. The major averages pulled back well off their early highs before ending the day in negative territory.
The Dow fell 204.57 points or 0.5 percent to 44,632.99, the Nasdaq declined 80.29 points or 0.4 percent to 21,098.29 and the S&P 500 dipped 18.91 points or 0.3 percent to 6,370.86.
The pullback on Wall Street may have reflected profit taking following the upward trend seen over the past several sessions, which saw the Nasdaq and the S&P 500 reach new record highs.
However, traders seemed reluctant to make more significant moves ahead of the Federal Reserve's monetary policy announcement on Wednesday.
While the Fed is widely expected to leave interest rates unchanged, the announcement could impact the outlook for rates.
The Labor Department's monthly jobs report is also likely to be in focus in the coming days along with earnings news from Magnificent Seven members Apple (AAPL), Amazon (AMZN), Microsoft (MSFT) and Meta Platforms (META).
Traders also continue to keep an eye on trade talks between the U.S. and China in Stockholm ahead of Friday's 'reciprocal tariff' deadline.
President Donald Trump said on Monday that most trading partners that do not negotiate separate trade deals would soon face tariffs of 15 percent to 20 percent on their exports to the United States.
In U.S. economic news, the Conference Board released a report showing consumer confidence in the U.S. saw a modest improvement in the month of July.
The Conference Board said its consumer confidence index rose to 97.2 in July after falling to a revised 95.2 in June.
Economists had expected the consumer confidence index to increase to 95.8 from the 93.0 originally reported for the previous month.
The Labor Department released a separate report showing job openings in the U.S. decreased by slightly less than expected in the month of June.
Sector News
Pharmaceutical stocks showed a substantial move to the downside on the dragging, dragging the NYSE Arca Pharmaceutical Index down by 2.6 percent.
Significant weakness was also visible among transportation stocks, as reflected by the 2.3 percent slump by the Dow Jones Transportation Average.
Oil service and steel stocks also saw some weakness on the day, while commercial real estate, natural gas and utilities stocks showed strong moves to the upside.
Other Markets
In overseas trading, stock markets across the Asia-Pacific region turned in another mixed performance during trading on Tuesday. Japan's Nikkei 225 Index slid by 0.8 percent, while China's Shanghai Composite Index rose by 0.3 percent.
Meanwhile, the major European markets have all moved to the upside on the day. The German DAX Index jumped by 1.0 percent, the French CAC 40 Index advanced by 0.7 percent and the U.K.'s FTSE 100 Index climbed by 0.7 percent.
In the bond market, treasuries moved notably higher following the weakness seen in the previous session. Subsequently, the yield on the benchmark ten-year note, which moves opposite of its price, tumbled by 9.0 basis points to 4.330 percent.
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