Wall Street Today: S&P 500, Dow Jones, Nasdaq slip as consumer confidence drops

US stock indices slipped on Tuesday after a report showed consumer confidence dropped in February.

At 10:14 a.m. ET, the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 78.98 points, or 0.18 per cent, to 43,382.23, the S&P 500 lost 45.07 points, or 0.75 per cent, to 5,938.18, and the Nasdaq Composite lost 277.57 points, or 1.45 per cent, to 19,007.96.

At the opening bell, the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 48.5 points, or 0.11 per cent, to 43,509.74. The S&P 500 fell 0.5 points, or 0.01 per cent, to 5,982.73, while the Nasdaq Composite dropped 44.3 points, or 0.23 per cent, to 19,242.608.

The consumer confidence in the US plummeted in February, the biggest monthly fall in more than four years, Conference Board said on Tuesday.

The Consumer Confidence Index sank this month to 98.3 from 105.3 in January. The seven-point drop was the biggest month-to-month decline since August of 2021.

In the bond market, the yield on the 10-year Treasury fell to 4.29 per cent from 4.40 per cent late on Monday.

Gainers and losers

Among megacap stocks, Nvidia fell 3.3 per cent, Tesla shed 5.8 per cent, Microsoft lost 0.8 per cent, and Meta Platforms was down 1.8 per cent.

Zoom Communications stock dropped 9.3 per cent even though it reported stronger quarterly results than expected.

Home Depot shares rose 3 per cent after the company delivered a stronger profit for the fourth quarter.

Keurig Dr Pepper rose 3.9 per cent after the company behind Snapple, Canada Dry and K-cup coffees reported better results for the end of 2024 than analysts expected.

Crypto stocks fell, with Coinbase down 8.3 per cent and MicroStrategy down 10.5 per cent after bitcoin prices touched a more than three-month low.

Bullion

Gold prices fell on Tuesday as investors booked profits after a record high in the previous session, with ongoing fears of a trade war.

Spot gold fell 0.6 per cent to $2,934.99 an ounce as of 09:55 am (1455 GMT). US gold futures declined 0.5 per cent to $2,948.60.

Spot silver shed 1.2 per cent to $31.96 an ounce.

Crude oil

Oil prices fell more than 2 per cent on Tuesday on negative economic news from the US and Germany.

Brent futures fell $1.61, or 2.25 per cent, to $73.17 a barrel by 10:34 am EST (1534 GMT), while US West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude fell $1.60, or 2.3 per cent, to $69.10.