Stocks dropped on Tuesday after hotter-than-expected inflation data for January spiked Treasury yields and raised doubts that the Federal
Reserve would be able to cut rates several times this year, a key part of the bull case for the equity market.
The Dow Jones Industrials swooned 422.12 points, or 1.1%, to move into Tuesday at 38,375.26, in its biggest drop since March 2023, when it fell 1.6%.
The S&P 500 index slid 51.67 points, or 1%, to 4,970.17.
The NASDAQ index jettisoned 189.04 points to 15,753.51.
In corporate news, JetBlue Airways spiked 12% after activist investor Carl Icahn reported a nearly 10% stake in the airline. Toymaker Hasbro lost 6% after missing analyst expectations for the fourth quarter. Shares of Avis Budget Group slipped 20% on the back of disappointing fourth-quarter revenue.
The consumer price index rose 0.3% in January from December. CPI was up 3.1% on an annual basis. Economists polled by Dow Jones expected CPI to have increased by 0.2% month over month in January and 2.9% from a year earlier.
Core prices, which exclude volatile food and energy components, rose 0.4% month over month and 3.9% from a year ago. Core CPI was expected to have increased 0.3% in January and 3.7% from a year earlier, respectively.
Prices for the 10-year Treasury withered, raising yields to 4.28% from Monday’s 4.19%. Treasury prices and yields move in opposite
directions.
Oil prices jumped $1.06 to $77.98 U.S. a barrel.
Gold prices lost $23.50 to $2,009.50.
