The Dow slipped 61 points, and the Nasdaq composite was down 1.1%. A strong report on retail sales last month raised worries that the Fed may feel pressure to keep interest rates high. That would help bring down inflation, but would also knock down prices for stocks and other investments. Treasury yields rose after the report was released. The yield on the 10-year Treasury climbed to 4.84%.
A weaker Chinese economy is a drag on regional and global trade and manufacturing, slowing the global recovery from the pandemic. In Europe at midday, Germany’s DAX fell 0.4%, the CAC 40 in Paris shed 0.2% and Britain’s FTSE 100 rose 0.2%. “The risk-off tone that permeated markets a few days ago seems to be dissipating thanks to a lot of shuttle diplomacy by Blinken and others in the region,” Robert Carnell and Nicholas Mapa of ING Economics said in a commentary. “However, all of this is before Israel mounts its ground offensive in Gaza, and that could turn sentiment rapidly sour again.”
Brent crude, the international standard, picked up 36 cents to $90.01 per barrel. It fell $1.24 on Monday to $89.65 per barrel.