Stocks slip on Wall Street as messy May comes to a close

NEW YORK — U.S. stocks are slipping in midday trading on Tuesday, as Wall Street nears the end of a tumultuous month, bruised by worries about a possible recession, inflation and rising interest rates.

The S&P 500 was down 0.1%, after briefly erasing all of an earlier drop of 1.3% during the morning. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 55 points, or 0.2%, at 33,158, as of 2:29 p.m. Eastern time, while the Nasdaq composite was 0.2% higher. Both came back from earlier losses of at least 1.4%

Such swings should perhaps be no surprise given Wall Street’s action this month, amid some of the wildest trading since the early days of the pandemic. The S&P 500 is on track for a 0.6% gain for May, which would bring it 13.3% below its record set early this year. But the slight move for the month belies sharp lurches down and up that shook investors along the way.

Through mid-May, the S&P 500 tumbled to seven straight losing weeks for its longest such streak since the dot-com bubble was deflating two decades ago. Slowing data on the U.S. economy heightened worries that high inflation will force the Federal Reserve to raise interest rates so aggressively that it will cause a recession.

Some high-profile retailers also said inflation is eating into their profits, adding more urgency to the concerns. They all combined to bring Wall Street to the brink of what’s called a bear market, where the S&P 500 was on the verge of closing more than 20% below its record.

“Outside of a peace agreement in Ukraine, it’s difficult to construct a case for more than a bear market rally,” which would be just a temporary turn higher for stocks, Morgan Stanley strategists led by Michael Wilson wrote in a report. They said that the more stock prices rise, the more likely the Federal Reserve will be to hike interest rates.

Highlighting the worries about inflation, oil prices rose after the European Union agreed to block the majority of oil imports from Russia because of its invasion of Ukraine. Benchmark U.S. crude slipped 0.3% to settle at $114.67 per barrel. Brent crude, the international standard, was down 1.4% at $115.96 after earlier topping $120.

The jump of more than 50% for oil prices so far this year has been a big contributor to the very high inflation sweeping the world. Earlier Tuesday, a report showed inflation in the 19 countries that use the euro currency hit 8.1% in May, the highest level since records began in 1997.

In the U.S., President Joe Biden will meet with Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell as soaring inflation continues to carve up Americans’ earnings.

The meeting will be the first since Biden renominated Powell to lead the central bank and weeks after the Senate confirmed a second term. The White House said the pair would discuss the state of the U.S. and global economy and especially four-decade high inflation, described as Biden’s “top economic priority.”

But stocks have managed to avoid a full-blown bear market, at least so far, with the S&P 500 yet to close more than 20% below its record. The S&P 500 is coming off its best week in a year and a half, in part on hopes that inflation may have hit its peak and will begin moderating. Speculation has grown that the Fed may consider a pause in rate hikes at its September meeting.

Relaxing anti-COVID restrictions in China have also helped, easing some of the worries about the world’s second-largest economy and about more snarls to global supply chains.

China’s factory activity contracted again in May, but it’s almost back to growing. More factories, shops and other businesses are being allowed to reopen this week in Shanghai and in the Chinese capital, Beijing, after authorities declared outbreaks under control.

Stocks in Shanghai and Hong Kong rose more than 1%.

On Wall Street, stocks of retailers and hotel operators were among the strongest performers. Starbucks rose 2.9% and Las Vegas Sands gained 3.5%.

Some areas of the stock market that have been particularly hard hit this year also climbed, including internet-related stocks. Amazon rose 5.4%, and the Class A shares of Google’s parent company gained 2.6%.

U.S. Treasury yields rose following reports showing confidence among U.S. consumers was higher than economists expected and home prices rose more than forecast.

The yield on the 10-year Treasury climbed to 2.84% from 2.75% late Friday.

Starting on Wednesday, the Fed will begin allowing some of the trillions of dollars’ worth of Treasurys and other bonds that it amassed through the pandemic to roll off its balance sheet. Such a move should put upward pressure on longer-term Treasury yields, and it’s one of the ways the Fed is trying to stamp out inflation by slowing the economy.

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AP Business Writer Elaine Kurtenbach contributed. Veiga reported from Los Angeles.