Wall Street closes lower as oil rises and investors await inflation data

Wall Street closed lower on Tuesday as rising oil prices renewed fears about persistent inflation and investors awaited two closely watched U.S. inflation reports.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 628 points, or 1.18%, to 52,786. The S&P 500 lost 0.58% to finish at 7,673, while the Nasdaq Composite declined 0.32% to 26,421. Trading began with investors avoiding risk during a shorter-than-usual holiday week after the Labor Day holiday on Monday.

Geopolitical tensions in the Middle East pushed oil prices higher. October West Texas Intermediate futures rose to $93.03 a barrel, driven by recent attacks by Yemen’s Houthi rebels against Saudi Arabia. The yield on the 10-year Treasury note rose to 4.792%, while the 30-year yield reached 5.249%.

Investors are waiting for the producer price index on Thursday and the consumer price index on Friday. The Federal Reserve will hold its monetary policy meeting next week, and the majority expectation, according to the FedWatch tool, is that it will raise interest rates.

The United States also effectively imposed retaliatory tariffs on Canada, some as high as 50%, on imports worth about $20 billion. In corporate trading, Qualcomm gained 3.2% after announcing a partnership with Amazon Web Services to develop artificial-intelligence infrastructure. Gold fell to $4,406 an ounce, the euro traded at $1.1622 and bitcoin declined to $78,520.