Back to the post-summer grind: Stocks end red
SPY•Sector moves were mixed
Utilities .SPLRCU were among the top performers among the S&P 500's 11 major sectors, benefiting from a U.S. heatwave, while energy stocks .SPNY got a boost from rising crude. Amgen helped drag healthcare .SPXHC to the sharpest percentage decline.
Elsewhere in the market, chips .SOX had a good day, with Intel INTC.O, AMD AMD.O, and Seagate Technology STX.O rising between 5.9% and 9.1%. Nvidia NVDA.O, on the other hand, lost 2.0%.
On the losing end, travel & leisure stocks .SPCOMHOTL, and housing-related shares .HGX, .SPCOMHOME were obvious underperformers, dropping between 2.8% and 3.8%.
Wall Street ends lower after holiday weekend
Wall Street lost some ground on Tuesday as investors returned from their three-day holiday weekend only to be confronted by an expanding Middle East conflict, retaliatory tariffs from Canada and crude prices touching a six-week high.
While the Nasdaq .IXIC and the S&P 500 .SPX ended the day only modestly lower, the blue-chip Dow .DJI suffered the steepest loss, weighed down by drugmaker Amgen AMGN.O, following Novartis' NOVN.S disappointing cholesterol drug study and BMO's downgrade of the stock.
Geopolitics, tariffs and inflation data in focus
Hostilities in the Middle East ramped up, following attacks by Iran-backed Houthis on four Saudi cities and Israel's decision to shutter the British consulate in East Jerusalem after the UK, France and Canada banned imports from Israeli settlements in the West Bank.
Closer to home, Canada's counter-tariffs, on $20 billion worth of U.S. goods, took effect at midnight, and covered everything from steel to furniture to clothing and electronics.
On the economics front, small business sentiment dipped as expectations of near-term business conditions deteriorated. Later in the week, the Labor Department's Producer Price and Consumer Price indexes are expected on Thursday and Friday, respectively.
