STORY: U.S. stocks tumbled on Tuesday after upbeat economic data raised concerns that a rebound in inflation could slow the pace of interest-rate cuts from the Federal Reserve.

The Dow lost more than four-tenths of a percent, the S&P 500 shed more than 1% and the Nasdaq dropped nearly 1.9%

Stocks gave up early gains after a Labor Department report showed job openings unexpectedly increased in November.

And services sector activity accelerated in December, with a measure tracking input prices surging to a near two-year high.

Both reports helped pushed back expectations on when the Fed might deliver its first rate cut this year, said Rob Haworth, senior investment strategy director at U.S. Bank Asset Management Group.

"Stocks today are really selling off because we're seeing a much more robust labor market, job openings above 8 million for the first time since May. So it's not an easing labor market. It remains a very strong labor market. Plus, we saw the services ISM [Institute for Supply Management] number pick up and tick a little bit higher. So it looks like the Fed has more concerns when it comes to inflation and robust economic growth. And that pushed interest rates higher and kind of pushed down that equity market as people are concerned that we may not get as many cuts this year as we were expecting, which is already quite low at maybe two for the full year and now it's maybe one."

Benchmark 10-year Treasury yields hit an eight-month high.

Higher yields pushed technology-sector stocks lower by about 2.4%.

Shares of AI bellwether Nvidia fell more than 6%.

Tesla shares fell 4% after BofA Global Research downgraded the stock to "neutral" from "buy."

On the flip side, shares of Micron Technology rose about 2.7% after Nvidia boss Jensen Huang said the chipmaker was providing memory for Nvidia's new Blackwell gaming chips.