NEW YORK (AP) — Most of the U.S. stock market fell Wednesday as Wall Street contended with the downside of a U.S. economy that keeps powering through its many challenges.
The S&P 500 slipped 0.3% to close out its third losing month in the last four. The Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 443 points, or 0.9%, and the Nasdaq composite added 0.2%.
Stocks turned lower after data reports suggested the U.S. economy was even stronger during the spring than earlier thought. That helped yields remain high in the bond market, which in turn kept up the pressure weighing on stocks and all financial markets.
The day began with gains for stocks following an encouraging report that said inflation wasn’t as bad across the United States last month as economists expected. It said the cost of living for U.S. consumers was 3.4% higher overall in August than a year earlier. That was not as high as the 3.7% inflation rate that economists expected, even if it remained worse than the Fed’s 2% target.
The report followed others from earlier in the month about inflation during August, but it’s the one that the Federal Reserve prefers to use.