US stock indexes finished Tuesday in negative territory after fresh US CPI data showed inflation had reached a new high in March. Equities gave up all early gains made at the beginning of the session. Losses in the Healthcare, Financials and Technology sectors propelled shares lower. The Dow Jones Industrial Average lost 0.26%, falling to 34,220.36 points. The S&P 500 slumped by 0.34% to 4,397.45 points, while the NASDAQ Composite decreased by 0.3% to 13,371.57 points.
On the Dow Jones, the best performing stocks of the session were Dow Inc (+2.11%), Chevron Corp (+2.08%), and Coca-Cola Co (+1.18%). The worst performing stocks were Cisco Systems Inc (-2.00%), Visa Inc Class A (-1.56%), and Merck & Company Inc (-1.15%). On the S&P 500, the biggest gainers of the session were Marathon Oil Corporation (+4.16%), Devon Energy Corporation (+3.71%), and Darden Restaurants Inc (+3.16%). The biggest losers were CarMax Inc (-9.54%), Catalent Inc (-6.53%), and Twitter Inc (-5.38%). On the NASDAQ Composite, the top stocks of Tuesday's session were Polarityte Inc (+82.97%) and Lixte Biotechnology Holdings Inc (+67.27%). The worst performers were Hoth Therapeutics Inc (-31.43%), Altamira Therapeutics Ltd (-31.33%), and Athersys Inc (-31.27%). On the New York Stock Exchange, advancing stocks outnumbered falling ones by 1,634 to 1,566 and 149 ended unchanged. On the NASDAQ Stock Exchange, 2,111 stocks fell and 1,696 advanced, while 261 ended unchanged. The CBOE Volatility Index, which measures the implied volatility of S&P 500 options, decreased by 0.45% to 24.26 points.
According to the latest data published by the US Department of Labor, the CPI jumped to 8.5% in March year-over-year, compared to 7.9% in February and greatly exceeding market expectations. Inflation has reached the highest level since December 1981. These data is likely to influence the Federal Reserve's decision to increase the interest rate at its next meeting in May. Many economists expect the Fed to raise interest rates by 50 basis points. Constantly accelerating inflation could send the stock market into a slump. The market has already been rattled by the war in Eastern Europe, the Fed's policy, and the lockdown in Shanghai. Asian stock indexes advanced on Tuesday, despite the COVID-19 outbreak in China. The Hang Seng added 0.5%, while the Shanghai Composite gained 1.5%.
