The main US stock market indices slipped into the red territory at open on Tuesday as America's high inflation readings for the month of April weighed on investor sentiment.
S&P 500 opened 0.34% lower at 7,387.65, tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite slumped 0.71% at open to 26,087.01, and Dow Jones Industrial Average opened marginally lower at 49,685.01.
As of 10:35 a.m. EST, Nasdaq plunged over 300 points or 1.22% to 25,952, S&P traded 0.76% lower at 7,355.95, and Dow Jones was down 0.5% to 49,448.75.
The annual consumer price index rate stood at 3.8%, rising 0.6% in April compared to the previous month, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics data.
The inflation number, while in-line with market expectations, was the highest since May 2023 and raised concerns around Iran war's impact on the American economy. The BLS report highlighted that gas prices jumped over 5% last month, following a 21% surge in March.
Oil prices resumed their rally after a brief pause with the West Texas Intermediate up nearly 4% at $101.88 per barrel and global benchmark brent crude up 3.48% to $107.84.
Losses in most of the big tech companies also dragged the indices. Stocks of all the magnificent seven barring Nvidia Corp. and Apple Inc. traded lower shortly after the opening bell.
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Notably, Micron Technology's historic bull run, which had boosted Nasdaq and S&P 500 to new records halted on Tuesday. The shares slipped 3% to $773.5.
Other prominent chipmakers like Advanced Micro Devices Inc., and Intel Corp. also traded 0.66% and over 3% lower at $455 and $125.5.
After the market opened, all but three of the 11 sectoral indices traded in the red, with the decline led by the Information Technology sector, Industrials sector, and Consumer Discretionary sector. Only the Healthcare sector, Consumer Staples sector, and Communication services sector traded in the green.
The Dollar Spot Index rose 0.4%, while euro fell 0.5% to $1.1729, British pound fell 0.7% to $1.3509, and the Japanese yen fell 0.3% to 157.66 per dollar.
Bitcoin, the largest traded cryptocurrency, fell 1.6% to $80,502.93.
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