U.S. stocks finished lower for a third straight day on Tuesday as strong labor-market data gave the Federal Reserve even more ammunition to continue its aggressive pace of interest-rate hikes.
- The Dow fell -308.12 or -0.96%
- The S&P 500 dropped -44.45 or -1.10%
- The Nasdaq declined -134.53 or -1.12%
Stocks opened with small gains Tuesday, attempting to stabilize after back-to-back losses caused by a more-hawkish-than-expected speech on Friday by Fed Chairman Jerome Powell.
But the bounce quickly lost steam, with indexes turning lower after data showed U.S. job openings rose to 11.2 million in July, up from a revised 11 million a month earlier. Also, the Conference Board’s consumer-confidence index jumped to 103.2 in August from a July reading of 95.3.
As a result, all three U.S. benchmarks closed below their 50-day moving averages for the first time since July, according to Dow Jones Market Data. The S&P 500 also lost roughly 5% over the last three sessions.
Strength in the jobs market could bolster the Fed’s determination to raise interest rates and keep them elevated in its effort to wring out inflation, which may be bad for asset prices, analysts said.
In other economic data, the S&P CoreLogic Case-Shiller 20-city index decelerated to a 18.6% year-over-year gain in June down from 20.5% in the previous month. Looking ahead, a closely watched reading on nonfarm payrolls for August is due out on Friday……..
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