By Chuck Mikolajczak
(Reuters) - U.S. stocks edged lower on Tuesday as weakness in the energy and financial sectors outweighed gains in technology shares.
Oil prices declined, keeping U.S. crude (CLc1) below the $50 a barrel mark, on concerns output cuts by the world's big exporters may not be sufficient to lessen a global glut that has depressed the market for almost three years.
The energy sector's (SPNY) 0.81-percent fall made it the worst performer among the major S&P 500 sectors. Exxon (N:XOM) was down 0.4 percent.
Financial stocks, down 0.8 percent, also supplied some downward pressure. JPMorgan (N:JPM) fell 1.5 percent and Bank of America (N:BAC) lost 1.1 percent as the two biggest drags on the S&P 500.
U.S. consumer spending recorded its biggest increase in four months in April and monthly inflation rebounded, pointing to firming domestic demand that could allow the Federal Reserve to raise interest rates next month.
"There was nothing so significant in the macro data today that was going to cause anyone to really go anywhere, so we are just churning," said Ken Polcari, Director of the NYSE floor division at O’Neil Securities in New York.
"And it’s all well and good until you get some sort of catalyst, negative or positive, that causes everyone to run for the door at the same time, trying to get in or get out."
Dallas Fed head Robert Kaplan told CNBC that while he was concerned about the recent economic data, he expected two more rate hikes in 2017.
Fed Governor Lael Brainard said a hike is probably coming soon, though the central bank may want to delay if inflation remains soft.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJI) fell 48.18 points, or 0.23 percent, to 21,032.1, the S&P 500 (SPX) lost 2.3 points, or 0.10 percent, to 2,413.52 and the Nasdaq Composite (IXIC) dropped 7.68 points, or 0.12 percent, to 6,202.51.
The technology sector (SPLRCT) rose 0.27 percent, boosted by gains in Apple (O:AAPL) and Microsoft (O:MSFT), both up 0.3 percent.
Amazon (O:AMZN) was up 0.3 percent at $998.34, after briefly crossing the $1,000 mark. Alphabet's (O:GOOGL) Class A shares were close behind after hitting a record of $997.62.
CardConnect's (O:CCN) shares jumped 10.4 percent to $15.08 after First Data (N:FDC) agreed to buy the payment processor for $750 million. First Data was up 1.1 percent.
Declining issues outnumbered advancing ones on the NYSE by a 1.48-to-1 ratio; on Nasdaq, a 1.88-to-1 ratio favored decliners.
The S&P 500 posted 28 new 52-week highs and 11 new lows; the Nasdaq Composite recorded 82 new highs and 70 new lows.