Early gains on Wall Street disappeared on Tue, with all three major US equity indexes falling. Stocks were unable to stay in the green, even when Treasury yields were moving lower. The Dow Jones Industrial Average lost 87.72 pts, or 0.26%, to close at 34,220.36. The broader S&P 500 index fell 0.34%. The tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite retreated 0.3%.
The small-cap Russell 2000 gained 0.33%.
The yield on the 10-year Treasury note slipped 5.88 basis points (bps) to 2.7213%. Yields dropped despite data showing an 8.5% annual rise in the consumer price index (CPI), the biggest jump since 1981. Economists expected an 8.4% headline CPI increase. The mom headline change was 1.2%, also higher than expected. Economists forecast it to rise 1.1% on the month. Gasoline prices drove half of the 1.2% monthly increase.
Monthly core CPI, which excludes food and energy slowed down a bit on a monthly basis, rising 0.3% from Feb, compared with 0.5% the prior month.
Crude oil futures went back above US$100 a barrel. The front-month Brent and WTI futures closed up $6.16 at US$104.64/bbl and $6.31 at US$100.60/bbl respectively. Russian President Vladimir Putin said peace talks with Ukraine are "at a dead end," vowing to continue Russia's invasion, according to Bloomberg.
Earnings season kicks off later today (Wed), with major US banks including JPMorgan (JPM US, -1.10%) set to report.
The ICE dollar index (DXY), which measures the strength of the greenback against a basket of currencies, rose 0.36% to 100.292.
The most actively traded US gold futures (Jun) contracts settled up $27.90, or 1.4%, at US$1,976.10/oz. May silver, which is the most actively traded silver futures, rose 74.8 cents, or 3.0%, to end at US$25.735/oz.
European equity markets finished lower on Tue. The UK FTSE lost 0.55%, France's CAC 40 fell 0.28%, while the German DAX retreated 0.48%. Airbus (AIR FP, +0.21%) defended its decision to keep importing Russian titanium, contending sanctions would hurt aerospace manufacturers.