U.S. Stocks Close Broadly Lower; Dow Ekes Out Marginal Gain

(RTTNews) - U.S. stocks recovered gradually after a weak start Tuesday morning, and after emerging into positive territory, faltered again as the day progressed amid rising worries about interest rates and economic slowdown.

A downward revision in global growth forecast by the International Monetary Fund weighed as well.

Stocks faltered past mid afternooon after the Bank of England said that its market intervention will be over soon, and that pension funds have just three days to rebalance positions.

The Dow, which climbed to 29,608.48, rising more than 530 points from an early low of 29,202.23, finally ended the session with a gain of 36.31 points or 0.12 percent at 29,239.19.

The S&P 500 settled at 3,588.84, down 23.55 points or 0.65 percent from the previous close. The Nasdaq settled at 10,426.19, down 115.91 points or 1.1 percent, as U.S. Treasury yields climbed to 3.933 percent, rising from a low of 3.8740%.

Meta Platforms share shed more than 4 percent following a rating downgrade due to challenging microeconomic environment.

JP Morgan Chase dropped 2.8 percent. Salesforce.com, Goldman Sachs, Walt Disney, Visa, Microsoft and Verizon lost 1.2 to 2.2 percent.

Amgen climbed nearly 6 percent, buoyed by a rating upgrade of the stock to 'overweight' by Morgan Stanley.

Walmart and Walgreens Boots Alliance surged about 2.75 percent and 2.5 percent, respectively. Johnson & Johnson, Travelers Companies, Nike, McDonald and Merck also closed notably higher.

Investors look ahead to U.S. inflation data, minutes from the Fed's September meeting and reports on retail sales and consumer sentiment due this week, for more insights into policymakers' view of where inflation stands and the outlook for the future path of interest rates.

In its report, latest World Economic Outlook Report, the IMF has lowered the global growth projection for next year and warned that the world economy is set to witness more pain next year.

The global lender cut the growth projection for next year to 2.7% from 3.3%, while it retained the outlook for this year at 3.2% after a 6% expansion in 2021.

"This is the weakest growth profile since 2001 except for the global financial crisis and the acute phase of the COVID-19 pandemic and reflects significant slowdowns for the largest economies," IMF said in the foreword to the latest World Economic Outlook report, released Tuesday.

Roughly a third of the world economy faces two consecutive quarters of negative growth, the lender said. "In short, the worst is yet to come and, for many people, 2023 will feel like a recession."

In overseas trading, Asian stocks ended lower on Tuesday, extending recent losses, amid worries about relentless Federal Reserve tightening and the escalation of the conflict in Ukraine following heavy Russian attacks.

Technology stocks bore the brunt of the selling as the United States intensified efforts to hobble China's semiconductor industry.

The major European markets closed weak, as worries about surging inflation, rising interest rates and slowing growth continued to weigh on sentiment.