STORY: U.S. stocks ended mostly lower on Tuesday, but the Dow posted a modest gain, while the S&P 500 edged down slightly and the Nasdaq lost seven-tenths of a percent.
The S&P 500 and Nasdaq eased off record highs after the Labor Department's Consumer Price Index was hotter than expected, pushing the annual inflation rate to 3.8%, its highest in three years.
And that's likely where it will hover for a while, says Dean Smith, chief strategist and portfolio manager for FolioBeyond.
"So I think the markets are digesting the fact that this is real. This is our new normal now. This is where we're going to live. We're going to be living in an inflationary environment that's in the neighborhood of between 3.5 and 4%. We're going to be living with something like a 4.5% 10-year [Treasury bond yield], something like a 5% 30- year long bond for the foreseeable future. And that's going to cause some recalibration. I think that's what we're seeing in the market today."
Meanwhile, the Iran war, now in its 11th week, showed no signs of a near-term resolution.
The notion of a protracted conflict raises the probability that spiking energy prices could create more entrenched inflation. That has all but squelched hopes for an interest rate cut from the Federal Reserve this year under the presumed chairmanship of Kevin Warsh, whom the U.S. Senate confirmed to the central bank board on Tuesday.
Among the session's stock moves, shares of Humana gained more than 7.5% after Bernstein hiked its price target by 36%.
:: eBay
Shares of GameStop dipped about 3.5% after eBay rejected the meme stock trailblazer's $56 billion takeover bid.
:: Hims & Hers
And shares of Hims & Hers Health tumbled about 14% after the telehealth company's pivot to branded weight-loss drugs drove up costs and led to a surprise loss in the first quarter.
