Around 13:55 GMT, the Dow Jones gave up 0.16%, the Nasdaq index dropped 0.50% and the broader S&P 500 index gave up 0.23%.
"The market is struggling to find direction ahead of the Fed's decision tomorrow," said Adam Sarhan of 50 Park Investments. Traders expect, almost unanimously, a status quo of the Federal Reserve on Wednesday, but will be attentive to the comments and forecasts of the members of the institution.
Meanwhile, the New York market watched with anxiety as bond yields rose ever higher. The yield on 10-year US government bonds still approached a 15-year high on Tuesday, at 4.3607% (against 4.3618% at the end of August), against 4.30% the previous day at the close.
Patrick O'Hare, of Briefing.com, also noted the new surge in oil, now close to its highest levels in a year, with a barrel of Brent from the North Sea that is only a breath away from $ 100.
"These moves are a deterrent for investors, who are worried about their consequences for growth and consumption, which are interconnected," the analyst said in a note.
The effervescence of black gold boosted the prices of oil companies, such as ExxonMobil (+0.50%), ConocoPhillips (+0.12%), or the oil and gas company Halliburton (+0.20%).
In contrast, the tension in the bond market was undermining the technology sector, which depends on credit conditions to finance its growth. Amazon (-2.26%), Nvidia (-0.87%) and Microsoft (-0.65%) were in the red.
However, Adam Sarhan saw in the small size of the decline of the indices something to be optimistic.
"Even with rising rates, China slowing, inflation picking up and a barrel close to $100, elements that would normally lead to a correction, the market continues to move up and down," in tight margins, argues the manager, for whom "it's encouraging."
The session will be animated by the debut of the shopping delivery platform Instacart, which on Monday set its issue price at $ 30 per share, which values the San Francisco start-up at about $ 8.3 billion, and nearly $ 10 billion including the securities awarded to employees and managers.
Still in the introductions chapter, the designer of microprocessors Arm continued its uncontrolled slippage (-6.36%). Since its first cannonball session (+24.69%), Thursday, its market capitalization has shrunk by nearly ten billion dollars.
On the stock market, the steelmaker US Steel rose in temperature (+3.54%) after publishing on Monday forecasts above analysts' expectations for the third quarter, thanks to higher than expected prices and lower costs.
Block was targeted (-2.79%), after the announcement of the departure of the chief executive of its digital payments subsidiary Square, who will be replaced by the boss of the group Jack Dorsey.
The Chinese manufacturer of electric vehicles NIO plunged (-11.11%) after announcing the issuance of bonds convertible into shares to the tune of one billion dollars, an operation that will dilute the value of existing securities.
NIO's competitors were also battered, such as XPeng (-3.02%), Rivian (-6.37%) or even Tesla (-1.29%).
© 2023 AFP