Dow books first back-to-back losses in December ahead of Federal Reserve’s crucial policy meeting – MarketWatch
Stocks ended lower for a second straight session Tuesday, ahead of an important meeting of the Federal Reserve and a policy update due Wednesday afternoon. Further evidence of inflation rising helped to spark a fresh bout of selling on the day, after the U.S. government released data on wholesale prices that showed a rise that helped to affirm investors’ concern over growing pricing pressures. The producer-price index rose 0.8% in November, above the 0.5% advance forecast by economists polled by The Wall Street Journal. And the yield curve, the differential between short-dated and longer-dated Treasurys were flattening, which usually signals that investors are betting on coming economic weakness or even a recession. The Dow Jones Industrial Average
DJIA,
-0.30%
closed down 105 points, or 0.3%, to reach 35,546, the S&P 500 index
SPX,
-0.75%
finished down 0.7% to 4,634, while the Nasdaq Composite Index
COMP,
-1.14%
lead losses for the main benchmarks, ending off 1.1% at 15,237. However, the major stock indexes closed off their worst levels of the session. In corporate news, shares of Tesla Inc.
TSLA,
-0.82%
were down 0.1%, after Chief Executive Officer Elon Musk sold more shares.