NEW YORK, United States (AP) — A slide for technology stocks weighed on Wall Street Tuesday as the market prepped for a highly anticipated report on inflation due the next day.
The S&P 500 lost 25.56 points, or 0.6 per cent, to 4,461.90. The Dow Jones Industrial Average slipped 17.73, or 0.1 per cent, to 34,645.99, and the Nasdaq composite dropped 144.28, or 1 per cent, to 13,773.61.
Software giant Oracle helped lead the losses for tech stocks after reporting revenue for the latest quarter that fell just short of what analysts expected. Its stock tumbled 13.5 per cent, even though its profit topped expectations. Oracle’s forecast for how much revenue it will make in the current quarter also wasn’t as strong as some analysts expected.
Apple dropped 1.8 per cent after it unveiled the latest models of its phones and other devices. The stock had soared through much of this year, which is crucial for many investors because it has more sway than other stocks on the S&P 500 as Wall Street’s most valuable company. But it’s been struggling since the end of July and has reported three straight quarters where its revenue fell from year-earlier levels.
Alphabet, meanwhile, fell 1.2 per cent as an antitrust trial against Google opened in a federal courthouse. It’s the biggest such trial since regulators took Microsoft to court in 1998. The U.S. government is accusing Google of abusing its position as the world’s dominant search engine and forcing consumers to settle for inferior search results.
On the winning side of Wall Street, stocks of oil producers rallied as the price of crude climbed. Exxon Mobil rose 2.9 per cent and was the strongest single force limiting the S&P 500’s loss. Occidental Petroleum gained 4.1 per cent. Oil prices have been climbing since the end of June after mostly falling for a year.
Stocks broadly have been see-sawing in recent weeks amid uncertainty about whether the Federal Reserve is done with its avalanche of hikes to interest rates. The central bank has already pulled its main interest rate to the highest level in more than two decades, as it tries to get inflation back down to its target of 2 per cent.
High rates work to undercut inflation by slowing the entire economy and knocking down prices for stocks and other investments.
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