US stocks stumbled on Tuesday, with investors still focused on the path of interest rates after a lackluster start to earnings season that kicked off with big bank results.
Boeing (BA) dragged on the Dow Jones Industrial Average (^DJI), which ended the session down 230 points, while the S&P 500 (^GSPC) shed 0.4%. The tech-heavy Nasdaq (^IXIC) ended slightly lower despite flipping into green territory several times during trading as chipmakers Nvidia (NVDA) and Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) rose.
Goldman Sachs stock (GS) ended fractionally higher after the bank reported a fourth quarter earnings jump of 51% year over year. Goldman Sachs said its full-year net income of $8.52 billion for 2023 was down 24% as dealmaking slowed across the industry.
Morgan Stanley (MS) shares dipped as much as 4% during the session after posting a quarterly profit impacted by a one-time charge of $535 million. The bank’s fourth quarter revenue beat Wall Street expectations.
Investors are counting down to Wednesday’s retail sales report as they track each release that could influence the Federal Reserve’s data-driven policy thinking. Last week’s surprise cooling in US wholesale inflation nudged up hopes for an interest rate cut in March.
Fed Governor Chris Waller said on Tuesday he believes the Fed will be able to lower interest rates this year so long as inflation doesn’t rebound or stay elevated. However, he cautioned the timing and rate cuts will depend on incoming data.
In other corporate news, a federal judge blocked a merger deal between Spirit Airlines (SAVE) and JetBlue (JBLU) amid antitrust concerns. The tie-up would’ve created the fifth-largest airline in the US.
Spirit Airlines closed a record 47% lower on Tuesday.
