The Dow Jones index fell 0.59% to 33,402.38 points, the tech-dominated Nasdaq 0.52% to 12,126.33 points and the broader S&P 500 index 0.58% to 4,100.60 points.

"There was less activity in the market today because we're all a little distracted by what's going on with Trump," said Steve Sosnick of Interactive Brokers.

In New York, Donald Trump was indicted and pleaded not guilty to 34 counts of embezzlement related to money paid to a porn star, during an unprecedented criminal hearing.

"Even though it's historic and a lot of eyes are on it, this case has little direct economic impact and is a non-event for the market," said Hogan of B.Riley Wealth Management.

The trades, less voluminous than the day before, gave rise to profit taking "after the beautiful race of the end of the quarter that ended Friday," said Steve Sosnick.

Thus, energy-related stocks, which had soared the day before with the jump in crude oil prices linked to the announcement of a production cut by OPEC +, have retraced part of the ground gained. This was the case for Halliburton (-2.55%), Schlumberger (-3.57%), ConocoPhilips (-1.96%) and Exxon Mobil (-0.96%).

Big names in tech, especially related to artificial intelligence, and which weighed heavily in the market rally in the first quarter, suffered sales. Thus Nvidia lost 1.83%, chip manufacturers weakened as AMD (-0.71%).

Tesla, which had fallen more than 6% on Monday, fell another 1.12% to $ 192.58 as investors watch the figures of vehicle deliveries of the electric manufacturer. These rose in the first quarter, but at the cost of a price cut that could happen again, analysts fear.

His boss, Elon Musk has also attracted attention by changing the logo of the blue bird of Twitter for that of the mascot dog of the cryptocurrency Dogecoin. The price of the virtual currency has therefore soared, while Elon Musk is already being sued for the promotion of this digital token.

Investors also digested two mixed indicators.

The monthly JOLTS labor market survey showed that job vacancies in the United States fell below 10 million in February, well below expectations.

Some 9.93 million positions are to be filled, 632,000 fewer than in January and their lowest level since May 2021.

This figure indicates that the job market is cooling, a goal sought by the US central bank (Fed), because it implies less pressure on wages and therefore less inflation.

The publication of industrial orders, which weakened more sharply than expected in February to -0.7%, after already a decline of 2.1% in January, has for its part darkened the mood of investors.

Finally, the banking sector again had a bout of weakness, after the warning of Jamie Dimon, CEO of JPMorgan (-1.34%) in his letter to shareholders.

He said the regional banking crisis was not over and would have repercussions in the coming years, even if it had nothing to do with the systemic risks of the 2008 financial crisis.

The shares of the Californian bank First Republic fell by 5.49%, that of Western Alliance by 3.76%.

Virgin Orbit, Richard Branson's company specializing in small satellite launches, signed its collapse plunging 23% to weigh only $ 0.14. The company filed for bankruptcy on Tuesday.

© 2023 AFP