Wall Street lost ground on Tuesday as simmering trade concerns, combined with disappointing economic data, sent buyers to the sidelines, where they remained after Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell pushed back on pressure from Presideent Donald Trump to cut rates All three major US stock indexes were in the red, weighed most heavily by technology stocks, after Powell said the Fed was grappling with whether trade uncertainties and other issues support interest rate cuts.
Powell, speaking at the Council on Foreign relations, also reiterated the Fed's independence, a day after Trump tweeted that the Fed "doesn't know what it's doing."
Earlier, St. Louis Federal Reserve Bank President James Bullard in an interview with Bloomberg said he does not think the Fed needs to cut rates by a half-percentage point at its next policy meeting, in late July.
"You had a one-two punch," said Art Hogan, chief market strategist at National Securities in New York. "Powell came out and warned against policy bending to short-term political interests, but it is also Bullard, who is a dissenter, saying 50 basis points would be too much."
The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 114.25 points, or 0.43%, to 26,613.29, the S&P 500 lost 17.36 points, or 0.59%, to 2,927.99 and the Nasdaq Composite dropped 80.27 points, or 1%, to 7,925.42.
Of the 11 major indexes in the S&P 500, 10 were in negative territory, with technology and communications services seeing the biggest percentage drops.
AbbVie Inc said it would buy Allergan Plc for about $63 billion, sending the Botox maker's shares up by 26.9%. AbbVie's stock dropped 15.4%.