U.S. stocks tumbled on Tuesday after a batch of upbeat economic data raised concerns that an inflation rebound could slow down the Federal Reserve's pace of monetary policy easing.
Stocks gave up early gains after a Labor Department report showed job openings unexpectedly increased in November, while a separate report said services sector activity accelerated in December with a measure tracking input prices surging to a near two-year high.
Market Snapshot
The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 178.20 points, or 0.42%, to 42,528.36, the S&P 500 lost 66.35 points, or 1.11%, to 5,909.03 and the Nasdaq Composite lost 375.30 points, or 1.89%, to 19,489.68.
Market Movers
NVIDIA fell 6.2% to $140.14. The artificial-intelligence chip maker unveiled its next-generation gaming graphic cards late Monday at the CES tech trade show in Las Vegas but CEO Jensen Huang provided relatively few details about the company's most lucrative business -- providing chips to train and run AI models -- apart from noting the company's Blackwell AI processors were in full production.
Micron Technology jumped 2.7% after Nvidia's Huang, during his keynote address at CES, discussed the company's RTX 50 family of gaming chips and mentioned Micron was providing memory for the graphics processing units. Micron shares closed Monday with a gain of more than 10%.
Aurora Innovation rose 29% after the self-driving technology company announced it had partnered with Nvidia to deploy driverless trucks. Nvidia's Huang announced the long-term manufacturing deal with Aurora and Continental, Aurora's manufacturing partner, at CES. Nvidia DRIVE Thor, an in-vehicle computing platform, will be used in the primary computer of the Aurora Driver.
Tesla fell 4.1% to $394.36. BofA Securities analyst John Murphy downgraded Tesla to Hold from Buy, noting investor sentiment has "shifted more positively" and "catalysts around future growth drivers have been more fully recognized," including the potential for self-driving robotaxis.
Palantir Technologies was down 7.8% to $69.99 after shares of the software company, which has leaned heavily into artificial intelligence, fell 5% on Monday. Those losses came as analysts at Morgan Stanley assumed coverage with an Underweight rating and set a price target of $60, implying downside of about 21%. The analysts acknowledged Palantir's impressive growth, including gains of more than 340% over the past year, while arguing that success was "more than priced in at the current multiple premium."
Moderna gained 12% after the first bird flu death was reported in the U.S. Moderna is one of a few drug companies currently developing a vaccine for the H5N1 bird flu, which is spreading rapidly through farms and wild animals in North America. As of Monday, there have been 66 confirmed human cases of H5N1 bird flu in the U.S. since 2024, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
FuboTV was a big winner on Monday, surging 251% after the company announced it would be merging its sports streaming service with Walt Disney's Hulu + Live TV service. The stock rose an additional 7.9% on Tuesday.
Carvana rose 5% to $198.35 after analysts at RBC Capital upgraded shares of the online used-car retailer to Outperform from Sector Perform and raised their price target to $280 from $270. A report last week from short seller Hindenburg Research accused Carvana of accounting manipulation and lax underwriting, describing the company's turnaround as a "mirage."
Getty Images climbed 24% after agreeing to a merger of equals with Shutterstock in a deal with an enterprise value of about $3.7 billion. The combined company will be named Getty Images Holdings Inc. and will continue to trade on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker symbol "GETY," Getty Images said. Shutterstock rose 15%.
UniFirst rose 21% after Cintas, a competitor in workplace uniforms, made an offer to acquire the company, valuing it at $5.3 billion. Cintas said it initially delivered its offer to the UniFirst board on Nov. 8, but the board refused to meet. UniFirst didn't respond to a request for comment from Barron's. Shares of Cintas were up 2%.
Inari Medical rose 22% to $79.45 after Stryker agreed to acquire the medical technology maker for $80 a share, or roughly $4.9 billion.
Market News
US Labor Market Stable as Job Openings Rise, Hiring Eases in November
U.S. job openings unexpectedly increased in November while hiring softened, suggesting the labor market continued to slow at a pace that probably does not require the Federal Reserve to be in a rush to cut interest rates.
The Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey, or JOLTS report, from the Labor Department on Tuesday also showed layoffs remained low and workers were reluctant to quit their jobs.
There were 1.13 job openings for every unemployed person, up from 1.12 in October. The vacancies-to-unemployed ratio is just below its average of 1.2 before the COVID-19 pandemic. It was 1.43 a year ago. The U.S. central bank reduced rates last month for the third straight time since it kicked off its easing cycle in September, but projected fewer cuts this year.