Wall Street Today: DJIA and S&P 500 Ease From Monday's Record Highs as CRM, V, JPM and MSFT Fall

The S&P 500 and Dow-30 pulled back Tuesday from Monday's record-high closes, while the Nasdaq Composite fell as well as Salesforce, Visa, JPMorgan, Microsoft and other large tech and non-tech stocks dropped.

The $Dow Jones Industrial Average (.DJI.US)$ shed 398.21 points (0.8%) to a 49,191.99 close, while the $S&P 500 Index (.SPX.US)$ lost 13.53 ticks (0.2%) to 6,963.74 and the $Nasdaq Composite Index (.IXIC.US)$ fell 24.03 points (0.1%) to 23,709.87.

Macro

The Dow-30 and S&P 500 had set record closing and intraday highs just one day earlier.

However, all three indexes eased Tuesday in part on weakness for bank stocks following U.S. President Donald Trump's call last Friday to cap credit-card interest rates at 10% for the next year. That's nearly half the 19.65% U.S. average rate that market tracker Bankrate.com saw as of Jan. 7.

Although Trump would likely need congressional approval to cap credit-card rates, his push for such a move has sent bank and credit-card stocks reeling this week.

Tuesday's major decliners included credit-card giants $Visa (V.US)$ (down 4.5%) and$MasterCard (MA.US)$ (3.8% lower).

$JPMorgan (JPM.US)$, a major Dow and S&P 500 component, likewise fell 4.2% despite reporting Q4 earnings and revenue beats before the bell (although the firm's investment-banking fees came in below expectations).

Adding to the market's woes, $Microsoft (MSFT.US)$ – a significant member of all three major indexes – fell 1.4%. The tech giant eased after Trump wrote on social media late Monday that MSFT will make unspecified "major changes" in how it operates data centers to prevent raising U.S. consumers' electricity bills.

Big Techs have been using lots of electricity to run data centers for cloud computing, crypto-mining and AI applications, with some speculating that the increased demand is boosting what Americans pay to power their homes.

Other Big Tech that fell Tuesday included $Rezolve AI (RZLV.US)$ (which lost 9.2%), $Salesforce (CRM.US)$ (down 7.1%), $Adobe (ADBE.US)$(5.4% weaker), $Super Micro Computer (SMCI.US)$ (off 5.1%) and $Tempus AI (TEM.US)$ (3.1% lower).

In economic news, the December U.S. Consumer Price Index – which measures retail inflation – came in at a 2.7% annual rate, matching expectations. The "core" CPI saw a 2.6% annualized increase – 0.2% better than economists had expected.

While that's still above the Federal Reserve's 2% target, the relatively tame rate prompted Trump to call on social media for the central bank to "meaningfully" cut its benchmark Fed Funds rate.

Trump has slammed the Fed and Chairman Jerome Powell for months over a failure to cut rates as much or as quickly as the White House wants.

Powell shook up markets Sunday by revealing that the U.S. Justice Department is investigating him for possible criminal charges over statements he made to Congress, something the central banker dismissed as "pretexts."

Instead, Powell claimed the probe stems from the Fed "setting interest rates based on our best assessment of what will serve the public, rather than following the preferences of the president."

Fears that the criminal probe will cut into the Fed's independence helped drive $Gold (LIST2110.US)$, $Silver (LIST2093.US)$ and cryptocurrencies higher as possible U.S. dollar alternatives.

All three assets also rose in a "flight to safety" amid geopolitical concerns over Iranian anti-government protests and hints of possible U.S. intervention.

$Gold Futures (APR6) (GCmain.US)$ rose as much as 0.6% in New York Comex trading to a $4,644-an-ounce all-time intraday record, while $Silver Futures (MAY6) (SImain.US)$ added as much as 4.8% to a $89.215-an-ounce intraday record peak.

Similarly, $Bitcoin (BTC.CC)$ gained 3.3% to $94,484.01 as of shortly before 4:15 p.m. New York time, while $Ethereum (ETH.CC)$ added 3.5% to $3,212.13, $Solana (SOL.CC)$rose 2.6% to $144.06 and $Ripple (XRP.CC)$improved by 3.6% to $2.14.

Moo-vers

The "Magnificent Seven" stocks only partly followed the broader market lower on Tuesday, with four Mag-7 names losing ground.

$Meta Platforms (META.US)$ led the decliners with a 1.7% pullback, followed by $Amazon (AMZN.US)$ (off 1.6%), $Microsoft (MSFT.US)$ with its previously noted 1.4% drop and $Tesla (TSLA.US)$ (0.4% lower).

However, four Mag-7 stocks rose – $Alphabet-A (GOOGL.US)$ (which rose 1,2% to set its second consecutive all-time closing high), $NVIDIA (NVDA.US)$ (up 0.5%) and $Apple (AAPL.US)$ (0.3% firmer).

Elsewhere in the market, Tuesday's noteworthy percentage gainers included:

-- Select cryptocurrency stocks, which rose in apparent sympathy with gains for Bitcoin and other cryptos. Winners included $Strategy (MSTR.US)$ (up 6.6%), $IREN Ltd (IREN.US)$ (which added 5.3%) and $Coinbase (COIN.US)$ (4% better).

-- Chip giants $Intel (INTC.US)$(7.3% higher) and $Advanced Micro Devices (AMD.US)$ (up 6.4%). Both rose after KeyBanc ungraded them to "Overweight" from a previous "Sector Weight."

Conversely, Tuesday's significant percentage decliners included:

-- $Strive (ASST.US)$, 11.8% lower. The Bitcoin treasury sank on word that shareholders have approved its acquisition of fellow crypto firm Semler Scientific Inc. ASST said it plans to issue new preferred equity to refinance Semler debt that it will assume under the merger.

-- $Critical Metals (CRML.US)$, down 8.4%. CRML pulled back after hitting a $16.44 near-term intraday peak on Monday, up 143.6% in less than two weeks since seeing a $6.75 intraday low on Dec. 31. The stock had been soaring because Critical Metals is developing a rare-earth-substances mine in Greenland – an area Trump is pushing to join the United States.

Disclaimer: This presentation is for informational and educational use only and is not a recommendation or endorsement of any particular investment or investment strategy. Indexes are unmanaged and cannot be directly invested in. Past performance is no indication of future results. Investing involves risk and the potential to lose principal. Investment information provided in this content is general in nature, strictly for illustrative purposes, and may not be appropriate for all investors. It is provided without respect to individual investors' financial sophistication, financial situation, investment objectives, investing time horizon, or risk tolerance. You should consider the appropriateness of this information regarding your relevant personal circumstances before making any investment decisions. Past investment performance does not indicate or guarantee future success. Returns will vary, and all investments carry risks, including loss of principal.

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