US close: Stocks mixed following PPI reading

dl nyse new york stock exchange wall st street city finance dow jones nasdaq sp finance dollar dollars us usa united states of america 2 — New York Stock ExchangeSharecast photo / Josh White

Wall Street stocks turned in a mixed performance on Tuesday following sharp losses in the two preceding sessions.

At the close, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 0.50% at 30,364.83, while the S&P 500 was 0.38% weaker at 3,735.48 and the Nasdaq Composite saw out the session 0.18% stronger at 10,828.35.

The Dow closed 151.91 points lower on Tuesday, extending losses recorded on Monday.

Market participants were continuing to prepare for the possibility of a larger-than-expected rate hike from the Federal Reserve later in the week after the Wall Street Journal suggested that the central bank will likely mull over the benefits of a 75-basis-point increase. However, some investors also expect to see a more hawkish tone from the Fed on the back of last Friday's red hot inflation report.

With last week's hotter-than-expected CPI reading still in focus, traders turned to the US producer price index at the open on Tuesday, with the Bureau of Labor Statistics revealing the PPI for final demand rose 0.8% in May, in line with analysts' expectations, up from 0.4% in April but down 1.6% in March.

On the year, PPI rose 10.8% in May, versus 11% the month before. Core PPI, which excludes food and energy prices, was up 0.5% on the month compared with an unrevised 0.4% print in April. On the year, core PPI rose 6.8%.

Elsewhere on the macro front, the National Federation of Independent Business' small business optimism index dipped to 93.1 in May, down from 93.2 in April to the lowest level seen since April 2020, with the lion's share of owners expecting business conditions to hit a record low over the next six months.

The bond market was also drawing an amount of investor attention, with the yield on both the two-year and ten-year Treasury notes easing off from the previous session's highs to 3.301% and 3.346%, respectively.

Also drawing an amount of investor attention, Opec left its forecasts for world oil demand unchanged on Tuesday, but warned that the global economy was "fraught" with uncertainty. The cartel, publishing its latest monthly report, forecast world oil demand growth for 2022 would be 3.4m barrels per day, with demand projected to average 100.29m bpd, unchanged on May's estimates. Demand was expected to exceed pre-pandemic levels by 900,000 bpd.

Within that, it revised down its forecast for the second quarter, to reflect the lockdowns in China, but upgraded expectations for the third, on likely strong demand during the summer holiday and driving season. The second half, however, was harder to predict, the Vienna, Austria-based body acknowledged.

No major corporate earnings were released on Tuesday.

Reporting by Iain Gilbert at Sharecast.com

Dow Jones - Risers

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Microsoft Corp. (MSFT) $244.49 0.92%
Apple Inc. (AAPL) $132.76 0.67%
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International Business Machines Corporation (CDI) (IBM) $135.72 0.45%
Intel Corp. (INTC) $37.93 0.42%
Nike Inc. (NKE) $110.72 0.25%
Chevron Corp. (CVX) $167.55 0.13%
McDonald's Corp. (MCD) $238.76 0.12%
Walmart Inc. (WMT) $119.46 0.04%