Wall Street Slips as Oil Keeps Dropping12/16 15:22

   The U.S. stock market drifted through a mixed day of trading Tuesday after 
reports on the economy did little to clear uncertainty about where interest 
rates may be heading.

   NEW YORK (AP) -- The U.S. stock market drifted through a mixed day of 
trading Tuesday after reports on the economy did little to clear uncertainty 
about where interest rates may be heading.

   The S&P 500 slipped 0.2% and remains a bit below its all-time high set last 
week. The Dow Jones Industrial Average dipped 302 points, or 0.6%, and the 
Nasdaq composite rose 0.2%.

   Treasury yields eased in the bond market after one report said the U.S. 
unemployment rate was at its worst level since 2021, but employers also added 
more jobs last month than economists expected. A separate report, meanwhile, 
said an underlying measure of strength for revenue at U.S. retailers grew more 
in October than economists expected.

   The mixed data meant little change in traders' hopes that the Federal 
Reserve may continue to cut interest rates further in 2026. What the Fed does 
with interest rates is a top driver for financial markets because lower rates 
can boost the economy and prices for investments, even if they also may worsen 
inflation.

   A report coming on Thursday will show how bad inflation was last month, and 
economists expect it to show prices for U.S. consumers continue to rise faster 
than anyone would like.

   A report released on Tuesday after U.S. stocks began trading suggested price 
pressures are rising sharply, with average selling prices for businesses 
climbing at one of the fastest rates since the middle of 2022. The preliminary 
data from S&P Global also said growth for overall business activity slowed to 
its weakest level since June.

   "Higher prices are again being widely blamed on tariffs, with an initial 
impact on manufacturing now increasingly spilling over to services to broaden 
the affordability problem," according to Chris Williamson, chief business 
economist at S&P Global Market Intelligence.

   On Wall Street, the sharpest losses came from companies in the oil business 
as prices for crude kept sliding.

   Expectations that companies are pumping more than enough oil to meet the 
world's demand have sent the price for a barrel of benchmark U.S. crude to its 
lowest level since 2021. It fell 2.7% Monday, as did Brent crude, the 
international standard. U.S. crude settled at $55.27 per barrel, while Brent 
settled at $58.92.

   That drove APA's stock down 5.2%. Marathon Petroleum sank 4.7% and 
Halliburton dropped 4.3% for some of Wall Street's larger losses.

   Artificial-intelligence technology stocks, meanwhile, were mixed after 
dominating the market in recent days.

   Oracle rose 2%, and Broadcom added 0.4%. They both had dropped to sharp 
losses last week, even though both reported stronger profits for the latest 
quarter than analysts expected.

   But CoreWeave, which rents out access to top-of-the-line AI chips, fell 3.9%.

   Questions remain about whether all the spending underway on AI technology 
will produce the kind of profits and productivity that will make it worth the 
expense.

   Elsewhere on Wall Street, Pfizer fell 3.4% after giving a forecast for 
profit in 2026 that was below what some analysts expected. Its forecast for 
revenue next year was close to analysts' expectations.

   Kraft Heinz added 0.7% after saying Steve Cahillane, who was most recently 
CEO of Kellanova, will join as CEO on Jan. 1. After Kraft Heinz splits into two 
companies, which is expected to happen in the second half of 2026, Cahillane 
will lead the one that will hold onto the Heinz, Philadelphia and Kraft Mac & 
Cheese brands.

   All told, the S&P 500 fell 16.25 points to 6,800.26. The Dow Jones 
Industrial Average dropped 302.30 to 48,114.26, and the Nasdaq composite rose 
54.05 to 23,111.46.

   In stock markets abroad, indexes fell across much of Europe and Asia.

   Japan's Nikkei 225 dropped 1.6% ahead of an expected hike to interest rates 
by the Bank of Japan later this week.

   Other markets in Asia also had some of the world's sharper swings. South 
Korea's Kospi dropped 2.2%, while indexes fell 1.5% in Hong Kong and 1.1% in 
Shanghai.

   In the bond market, the yield on the 10-year Treasury fell to 4.14% from 
4.18% late Monday.