US open: Stocks mostly lower following CPI reading

dl wall street st new york city nyc nyse stock exchange ny dow jones nasdaq sp finance us usa united states of america — Wall StreetSharecast photo / Josh White

Wall Street stocks were mostly lower early on Tuesday as market participants digested key inflation data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

As of 1500 GMT, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 0.05% at 36,387.94, while the S&P 500 slipped 0.14% to 4,615.74 and the Nasdaq Composite picked up 0.01% to 14,433.56.

The Dow opened 16.99 points higher on Tuesday, taking a small bite out of gains recorded in the previous session.

Tuesday's primary focus was on news that the cost of living in the US had drifted a tad lower in November amid another decline in energy prices. According to the Department of Labor, in seasonally adjusted terms, the country's consumer price index edged up by 0.1% month-on-month. In annual terms, on the other hand, the rate of change ticked lower by one-tenth of a percentage point to 3.1%. Annual core CPI, which excludes food and energy, was steady in comparison to the prior month at 4.0%.

The data also comes just ahead of the Federal Reserve's final monetary policy announcement of 2023, due on Wednesday, where it will mull over its policy decisions and present its economic forecast.

"The slightly stronger 0.28% m/m rise in core consumer prices in November suggests the Fed may be able to hang onto its tightening bias for a little longer, but sharper declines in inflation are still likely to result in rates being cut aggressively next year," said Andrew Hunter, deputy chief US economist at Capital Economics.

Elsewhere on the macro front, the National Federation of Independent Business' small business optimism index fell for a fourth month in a row to hit 90.6 in November, its lowest level since May and down from 90.7 in October and short of forecasts for a reading of 90.7

Owners expecting business conditions to improve over the next six months increased one point to -42%. However, 40% of all owners reported job openings they could not fill in the current period, down three points month-on-month, while the net percentage of owners raising average selling prices decreased five points from October to 25% in November.

In the corporate space, tech firm Oracle traded lower after revealing second-quarter revenues had fallen short of expectations on the Street, while toymaker Hasbro also headed south on the back of news that it was laying off roughly 1,100 staff members.

Reporting by Iain Gilbert at Sharecast.com

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