Investing.com – Wall Street struggled on Tuesday to pull back into positive territory as a record fine on Google (NASDAQ:GOOGL) put downward pressure on tech stocks and the International Monetary Fund’s (IMF) cut to the U.S. growth forecast dampened sentiment, while investors looked ahead to an appearance from Federal Reserve (Fed) chair Janet Yellen.
At 11:00AM ET (15:00GMT), the Dow Jones advanced 11 points, or 0.05%, the S&P 500 was unchanged, while the Nasdaq Composite traded down 17 points, or 0.27%.
Putting pressure on the tech sector, the European Commission (EC) fined Google’s parent company Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG) a record €2.42 billion ($2.7 billion) Tuesday for a breach of antitrust laws.
“Google has abused its market dominance as a search engine by giving an illegal advantage to another Google product, its comparison shopping service,” the EC declared on Tuesday.
The firm’s general counsel Kent Walker responded that the they disagree with the ruling and cited Amazon (NASDAQ:AMZN) as a competitor.
“We will review the Commission’s decision in detail as we consider an appeal, and we look forward to continuing to make our case,” he concluded.
Also dampening market sentiment on Tuesday, the IMF cut its growth forecasts for the U.S. economy to 2.1% in 2017 and 2018, dropping its assumption that the Trump administration's tax cut and fiscal spending plans would boost growth.
Limiting losses on Tuesday, consumer confidence unexpectedly rose in June, bolstering optimism over the consumption driven economy.
Still on the docket, market players looked ahead to a speech from Fed chair Janet Yellen.
Scheduled to speak on global economic issues at 1:00PM ET (17:00GMT) Tuesday, markets hope for that Yellen would provide new insight on the timing of when the Fed will next raise interest rates and/or begin the reduction of its $4.5 trillion balance sheet.
Earlier Tuesday, San Francisco Fed president John Williams warned that the U.S. and other advanced economies would find themselves stuck in a long-term slow growth period if fiscal authorities didn’t take action.
Investors will also hear Philadelphia Fed chief Patrick Harker speak on the economic outlook at 11:15AM ET (15:15GMT), while Minneapolis Fed president Neel Kashkari will participate in a townhall at 5:30PM ET (21:30GMT).
Despite the Fed’s own median projection that it will raise rates once more this year, markets put the odds at just 41% for a hike in December, according to Investing.com's Fed Rate Monitor Tool.
Meanwhile, oil rose for a fourth consecutive session on Tuesday, after five straight weeks of declines, as prices were boosted by a weaker dollar and investors covering short positions, despite continued consider over rising U.S. shale production.
Still ahead, industry group the American Petroleum Institute will release its weekly report on U.S. crude inventories at 4:30PM ET (2030GMT) later on Tuesday. Official data from the Energy Information Administration will be released Wednesday, amid forecasts for an oil-stock drop of around 2.2 million barrels.
U.S. crude futures jumped 2.31% to $44.38 by 11:02AM ET (15:40GMT), while Brent oil shot up 2.58% to $47.23.