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Stock Market News for May 26, 2021

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U.S. stocks ended slightly lower on Tuesday after giving up gains made in the earlier session as concerns over a pickup in inflation made investors jittery. Also, the consumer confidence reading came in below expectations, which dented investors’ spirit. All the three major indexes ended in negative territory.

How Did The Benchmarks Perform?

The Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJI) declined 0.2% or 81.52 points to end at 34,312.46, snapping its three consecutive days of gains. The blue-chip index at one point of the session was trading more than 100 points higher.

The S&P 500 fell 0.2% or 8.92 points to close at 4,188.13 points, dragged down by the energy sector. The Energy Select Sector SPDR (XLE) and the Utilities Select Sector SPDR (XLU) fell 2% and 1.2%, respectively. Seven of the 11 sectors of the benchmark index closed in negative territory.

The tech-heavy Nasdaq declined less that 0.01% or a meager 4 points to end at 13,657.17 points. Tech stocks took a hit once again with shares of Apple, Inc. (AAPL - Free Report) declining 0.2% and Netflix, Inc. (NFLX - Free Report) falling 0.3%. Apple carries a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy). You can see the complete list of today's Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here.

The fear-gauge CBOE Volatility Index (VIX) was up 2.39% to 18.84. A total of 9.48 billion shares were traded on Tuesday, lower than the last 20-session average of 10.41 billion. Decliners outnumbered advancers on the NYSE by a 1.53-to-1 ratio. On Nasdaq, a 1.77-to-1 ratio favored declining issues.

Investors Worry About Inflation

After a volatile last week, markets stabilized somewhat on Monday but concerns over inflation once again made investors jittery on Tuesday. Rising inflation and uncertainty over how the Fed handles its policies are being blamed for the stock market volatility.

Earlier this month, data showed that consumer-price index rose 4.2% year over year in April, which had ignited fears that the Fed could start pulling back on its monetary policy accommodation earlier than expected. This has been denting the sentiments of investors for a while now and Tuesday once again saw volatility in the markets because of this.

That said, reopening stocks like airlines and cruise lines some support to the broader market. Also, weaker-than-expected economic data dented investors’ sentiment on Tuesday.

Economic Data

The Conference Board said on Tuesday that U.S. consumer-confidence index fell to 117.2 in May from a revised 117.5 April. The previous April reading was 121.7 and was a pandemic-level high.

In other economic data, new home sales declined almost 6% in April prices continue to rise. The Case-Shiller U.S. home prices index for March rose 13.2% year over year as supply shortage and rising demand continue to be a problem.

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