Wall Street Ends Lower After Powell's Rate Caution

U.S. stocks finished lower Tuesday as Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell said the U.S. central bank needs to balance inflation concerns with a weakening job market in its coming interest rate decisions.

The Nasdaq led declines, with shares of Nvidia down after rising in the previous session, when the chipmaker said it plans to invest up to $100 billion in OpenAI.

Amazon.com, Microsoft and Apple also were lower, while shares of AutoZone were down after it reported fourth-quarter profit that missed estimates. In comments Tuesday, Powell offered little hint of when he thinks the Fed might next cut interest rates. The Fed last week cut rates for the first time this year and indicated further cuts may be coming.

"The big event of the day was Powell's speech. He was somewhat on the dovish side, but also he showed cautiousness, and that indicates that while he left the door open for another rate cut, there was really no hint of when and how much the next rate cut could be," said Peter Cardillo, chief market economist at Spartan Capital Securities in New York.

"The market began to sell off on that," he said, adding: "It was also ripe for some sort of a pullback." The three major U.S. indexes registered record closing highs for the previous three sessions.

According to preliminary data, the S&P 500 lost 36.57 points, or 0.55%, to end at 6,657.18 points, while the Nasdaq Composite lost 214.84 points, or 0.93%, to 22,577.34. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 82.46 points, or 0.18%, to 46,299.08.

Powell's colleagues earlier gave comments on both sides of the policy argument. Fed Vice Chair for Supervision Michelle Bowman said the Fed could downplay concerns about persistent inflation and needed to make a commitment to cut rates in support of the job market.

Helping to limit declines on the Dow, Boeing edged higher after it secured an order from Uzbekistan Airways worth over $8 billion.

Investors were also watching shares of Kenvue, the maker of popular pain medication Tylenol. They were up on Tuesday. They closed 7.5% lower on Monday ahead of U.S. President Donald Trump's comments linking autism to childhood vaccine use and the taking of Tylenol by women when pregnant.