Traders work on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) in New York City, March 22, 2023.
Brendan McDermid | Reuters
Stocks dipped Tuesday as traders assessed a spike in oil prices and what that could mean for the global economy.
The S&P 500 was down by 0.4% after opening higher, while the Nasdaq Composite slipped 0.3%. The Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 167 points, or 0.5%.
The S&P 500 headed for its first decline in five days after a reading of job openings dropped below 10 million for the first time in nearly two years, a sign the once hot labor market supporting the economy is starting to slow.
“There’s still plenty of job openings relative to [the] unemployed,” said Ed Yardeni, president of Yardeni Research. “The market is very sensitive to any minor change in the direction that they don’t want to see.”
Tuesday’s declines put the S&P 500 and Dow on track to snap a four-day winning streak. The rose 0.4% and 1%, respectively, on Monday.
To be sure, markets have been resilient as of late, with the major averages rising even when faced by persistent inflation, a banking crisis and higher rates.
S&P 500, 1-year chart
“Resilient is a good word,” said Julian Emanuel, senior managing director at Evercore ISI. ” [The] bottom line is that the economic forward looking backdrop continues to soften even as present conditions (2-3% GDP in 1Q) remain strong, set against already defensive positioning, stocks remain deadlocked in the 3800 -4200 range.”
This week, the energy market became another potential source of uncertainty, after OPEC+ announced it was slashing output by 1.16 million barrels of oil per day. West Texas Intermediate futures had their biggest daily gain in nearly a year on the news. On Tuesday, however, crude traded slightly lower.
“Given the transition the world is undergoing as it embraces ‘clean and green energy,’ OPEC+ understands all too well that its still highly valued ‘liquid gold’ will at some point begin to…
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