The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 0.6% at Tuesday's closing bell. The S&P 500 sliced off an equal loss for the confused session.
Dow Jones component Caterpillar was a big loser, even as Nike gained. Microsoft is in a buy zone above a 276.86 entry. An early entry at 176.25 is on watch for Apple.
Most sectors declined but utilities notched a small gain. Gold and silver mining stock Newmont rallied.
Extra Space Storage jumped after it announced a $12.7 billion deal with Life Storage Monday.
Software stocks ServiceNow and Take-Two Interactive also rose. Steel Dynamics and United Rentals fell, with steel stocks getting sold aggressively.
Nasdaq software stocks gained ground but the tech index was still down 0.5% for the day.
Atlassian and CrowdStrike rose while Sirius XM and Charter Communications fell. IBD Leaderboard watchlist stock HubSpot rose in a buy zone above a 118.49 entry in a flat base. Amazon reversed from earlier losses and posted a gain of over 1% at the close. Morgan Stanley analyst Mathew Cost sees the cloud and e-commerce giant benefiting from a "$130 billion opportunity in retail media advertising by 2025,"
The small-cap Russell 2000 index declined the most, falling over 2%.
NYSE volume was slightly higher while Nasdaq volume took a dive compared to the same time on Monday.
Crude oil stalled at $80.41 per barrel after Monday's big rally. An oil analyst at Kepler, Matt Smith sees gas hitting $4 a gallon heading into the summer. Analysts at Goldman Sachs and Capital Economics have increased their crude price targets.
The yield on the 10-year Treasury note fell 9 basis points to 3.33% and is testing weekly lows.
Stocks Moving Outside Dow Jones
Chipotle Mexican Grill broke out of a cup base with a buy point at 1,724.81.
In a sharp reversal from Monday's sell-off, World Wrestling Entertainment broke out of consolidation with an 83.73 entry. Earnings are due April 12.
AMC dived over 20% after a settlement to convert its AMC Preferred Equity to common shares. APE units were issued in August last year as the movie theater company tried to pay down debt. The conversion will dilute the value of AMC shares.
Beleaguered meme play Bed Bath & Beyond fell sharply after Jefferies analyst Jonathan Matuszewski lowered his price target to 50 cents.
C3.ai stock plunged over 20% on reports of Kerrisdale Capital allegations of "serious accounting and disclosure issues."
The Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey (JOLTS) showed a slowing labor market, with 9.931 million job openings in February, lower than views of 10.4 million. The number fell from 10.824 million in January. Jobs fell below the 10,000 mark for the first time since May 2021.
Factory orders shrank to 0.7% in February after a 2.1% drop in January.
Also outside Dow Jones, SpaceX rival Virgin Orbit filed for bankruptcy.
Conagra is on deck to report earnings Wednesday, with Lamb Weston following on Thursday.
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