Dow Jones 21467 minus 62
S&P500 2437minus 16
DAX 12814minus 74
FTSE 7472 minus 51
OIL 43.53 minus 0.9
GOLD1242 minus 1.49
AUD 0.7579
SPI futures minus 26
U.S. stocks finished lower Tuesday as investors dumped energy shares after crude-oil prices sank into bear-market territory.
The S&P 500 SPX, -0.67% dropped 16.43 points, or 0.7%, to close at 2,437.03, with nine of the 11 main sectors trading lower. The energy sector was down 1.3%, topping the losers.
Crude oil CLN7, -1.95%sank to a 10-month low, falling 2% as ongoing worries about a supply glut pressured prices.
Shares of oil companies were among the worst performers. Transocean Ltd.RIG, -4.21% shed 4.2%, Marathon Oil Corp. MRO, -3.44% declined 3.4% and Hess Corp.HES, -3.19% was down 3.2%.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average DJIA, -0.29% fell 61.85 points, or 0.3%, to end at 21,467.14 after touching an intraday record of 21,535.03
The Nasdaq Composite Index COMP, -0.82% slid 50.98 points, or 0.8%, to close at 6,188.03. The tech-heavy index has moved sharply lower over the past two weeks on concerns the high-value tech industry is in a bubble.
“Overall it’s a quiet market, but there are a lot of moving parts,” said Quincy Krosby, chief market strategist at Prudential Financial.
Investors are keeping an eye on the parade of Federal Reserve speakers to get a handle on the central bank’s stance on future rate increases as well as politics, she said
In a speech in Amsterdam to a conference co-sponsored by the central banks of Sweden and the Netherlands, Boston Fed President Eric Rosengren said lower rates may be a more permanent feature on the economic landscape because they reflect broad population trends.
Rosengren’s remarks come after the Fed last week raised interest rates by a quarter of a percentage point and outlined a plan for shrinking its massive balance sheet.
Separately, Chicago Fed President Charles Evans said late Monday the central bank could be done raising rates this year. He reiterated those comments during talks on Tuesday on CNBC and with The Wall Street Journal. He said he supports the current policy of “very gradual” interest-rate hikes and a slow reduction of the balance sheet. Earlier on Monday, New York Fed President William Dudley struck a hawkish tone, arguing against slowing the pace of interest-rate increases.
There are fears that higher interest rates will trigger a market move into so-called defensive plays. Defensive stocks are shares of companies that manufacture products or provide services viewed as essential regardless of the economic cycle, such as consumer staples and utilities.
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On the economic docket for Tuesday, the current-account deficit for the first quarter rose by 2.5%. to $116.8 billion in first quarter.
