US benchmark equity indexes closed lower Tuesday as markets awaited the official consumer inflation report for November. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 0.4% to 44,247.8, while the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq Composite dropped 0.3% each to 6,034.9 and 19,687.2, respectively. Among sectors, real estate saw the steepest decline, whereas communication services paced the gainers.
Data is expected to show that US consumer inflation rose 0.3% sequentially and 2.7% annually last month, based on a Bloomberg-compiled consensus. In October, the US consumer price index increased 0.2% month on month and 2.6% on an annual basis. The official producer prices report for November is scheduled for release Thursday.
The US 10-year yield rose 2.9 basis points to 4.23% Tuesday, while the two-year rate increased by two basis points to 4.15%. In economic news, small business optimism in the US reached its highest level since June 2021 last month, with the uncertainty index falling, according to the National Federation of Independent Business's latest survey.
Chief Economist Bill Dunkelberg stated, "The election results signal a major shift in economic policy, leading to a surge in optimism among small business owners. Main Street also became more certain about future business conditions following the election, breaking a nearly three-year streak of record high uncertainty." Additionally, global airline industry revenue is anticipated to exceed $1 trillion for the first time in 2025, increasing 4.4% annually to approximately $1.007 trillion, as reported by the International Air Transport Association.
Passenger numbers are projected to grow 6.7% to 5.2 billion next year, surpassing the 5 billion mark for the first time. In company news, MongoDB ($MDB) shares plunged nearly 17%, marking the worst performance on the Nasdaq. The database software maker raised its full-year outlook and reported better-than-expected fiscal third-quarter results but forecasted a consumption slowdown for its Atlas cloud platform in the current quarter.
Oracle ($ORCL) experienced one of the steepest declines on the S&P 500 Tuesday, falling 6.7% after its fiscal second-quarter results failed to meet Wall Street's estimates. The software maker's cloud operations saw strength, but this was countered by revenue declines in hardware and services offerings.
Walgreens Boots Alliance ($WBA) is in discussions for acquisition by private-equity firm Sycamore Partners, with sources citing The Wall Street Journal. Walgreens shares surged 18%, becoming the best performer on the S&P 500. Boeing ($BA) was the top gainer on the Dow and among the best on the S&P 500, rising 4.5% after announcing the resumption of 737 production at its factory in Renton, Washington.
The company's November deliveries and orders fell both sequentially and annually. West Texas Intermediate crude oil was relatively unchanged at $68.40 a barrel Tuesday. Gold rose 1.2% to $2,718.40 per troy ounce, while silver declined 0.2% to $32.55 per ounce. $MDB $ORCL $WBA $BA $US30 $US500.