(Updates with index/price moves, macroeconomic data and geopolitical news from the first paragraph.)
US equity indexes fell Tuesday amid declines in growth sectors as higher crude oil prices and fading hopes of a quick reopening of the Strait of Hormuz increased focus on July's consumer price inflation data.
The Nasdaq Composite retreated 0.6% to 26,445.45, the S&P 500 slid 0.3% to 7,728.20, and the Dow Jones Industrial Average slipped 0.3% to 53,791.85. Communication services, consumer discretionary and technology were among the steepest decliners. Energy led the gainers.
AppLovin's (APP) 30% long-term annual revenue growth target lacks sufficient evidence, with uncertainty rising around the sustainability of its self-learning growth, BofA Securities said in a note. Shares dropped 6%, the worst performer on the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq.
SK Hynix (SKHY) plans to resume construction at its second NAND flash facility in Dalian, China, to boost output by about 50%, Seoul Economic Daily reported. Shares jumped 4.7%, the top performer among stocks with market capitalization of more than $200 billion each, according to data compiled by Finviz. The worst performers in this category were SpaceX (SPCX), down 3.9%, followed by Alphabet (GOOG, GOOGL) and Dell Technologies (DELL).
Mohsen Rezaee, secretary of Iran's Supreme National Security Council, told China's ambassador the Strait of Hormuz "will not be opened until the United States changes its behavior and accepts Iran's conditions," Al Jazeera, a Middle Eastern broadcaster, said, citing Iran's Tasnim news agency. "America must end the war, pay Iran's frozen assets, the war must end throughout the region, including in Lebanon and Gaza," Reuters cited Rezaee as saying in a report from Tasnim.
A Saudi-owned commercial vessel was reportedly struck by a missile while transiting the Bab al-Mandeb Strait in the Red Sea, CNN reported, citing Marisks, a marine intelligence group. An incident involving a container ship and an unknown military force in the Gulf of Oman has been reported by the UK Maritime Trade Operations, the news report added.
Front-month US West Texas Intermediate crude oil climbed 1.7% to $83.50 per barrel, and global benchmark North Sea Brent advanced 1.5% to $89.17 per barrel, fueling concern that higher energy prices will make it challenging for the Federal Reserve to extend its five-meetings-long pause.
Speaking to inflationary concerns ahead of consumer prices due Wednesday, Cleveland Fed President Beth Hammack noted on Monday that price pressures are rising, according to a Stifel note. Hammack, one of the three dissenters who opposed the July policy hold, said more than one rate increase may be needed to ease inflation back to the Fed's 2% target.
The pace of US existing home sales fell by 1.7% to a 4.06 million seasonally adjusted annual rate in July from 4.13 million in June, compared with a larger expected decrease to a 4.05 million rate in a survey compiled by Bloomberg, data from the National Association of Realtors released Tuesday showed.
The National Federation of Independent Business's monthly Small Business Optimism Index rose to 99.8 in July from 97.4 in June.
Redbook US same-store sales jumped 8.3% from a year earlier in the week ended Aug. 8 after an 8.7% surge in the previous week.