US: Wall Street pulls back, ending record streak

[NEW YORK] Major US stock indices dropped at the close of trading on Tuesday, ending a streak of record-setting sessions as traders digested the latest sign of high US inflation.

After two back-to-back sessions in which Wall Street's main indices finished at all-time highs, analysts said a pullback was imminent, and while it finally happened it was not a dramatic reversal.

The drop today "is technical in nature. The market is overbought and due for a slight correction, for a pause," Karl Haeling of LBBW told AFP.

The benchmark Dow Jones Industrial Average lost 0.3 per cent to finish at 36,319.98.

The tech-rich Nasdaq Composite Index fell 0.6 per cent to end the session at 15,886.54, and the broad-based S&P 500 declined 0.4 per cent to 4,685.25.

Inflation has been a constant concern for investors, and Labor Department data showed the producer price index remained high in October with an 8.6 per cent increase from the same month in 2020.

Consumer price data set for release Wednesday may confirm continued increases in October, but Haeling said, "My view is that the bad news about inflation are already priced in the market."

General Electric finished 2.7 per cent higher after announcing it will split into three separate, publicly-traded companies in the latest move to shore up the industrial giant's fortunes.

Tesla lost a whopping 12 per cent amid the fallout from a poll posted on Twitter by founder Elon Musk asking if he should sell 10 per cent of his shares in the electric car maker - to which a majority voted yes.

AFP