NEW YORK — U.S. stocks closed slightly lower as Treasury yields kept rising, even as oil prices fell to their lowest level in a month.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 131.59 points, or 0.26%, to 51,349.92 on the 29th. The Standard & Poor's 500 lost 12.85 points, or 0.17%, to 7,670.84, and the Nasdaq Composite slipped 22.84 points, or 0.09%, to 26,797.54.
Among the largest companies by market value, Nvidia fell 0.72%, Apple dropped 2.66%, Microsoft edged down 0.05%, Google parent Alphabet declined 0.53% and Tesla lost 1.29%. Gainers included Amazon, up 0.21%, TSMC, up 0.90%, SpaceX, up 2.59%, Facebook parent Meta, up 3.24%, Broadcom, up 1.58%, SK hynix, up 2.62%, and Micron, up 1.05%.
With no clear catalyst driving trading, rising Treasury yields were the biggest factor. The 30-year Treasury yield jumped as high as 5.621% during the session, the highest in 24 years, or since 2002. The 10-year yield, the global benchmark, rose as high as 5.293%, approaching 5.3%.
Inflation worries also weighed on sentiment. The Conference Board said its consumer confidence index fell to 81.9 in September, based on a 1985 reading of 100, down 6.7 points from 88.6 in August. The figure came in well below the 89.0 expected by analysts polled by Dow Jones and marked the lowest level since April 2014.
Job openings fell by 256,000 to 7.079 million in August, below market expectations of 7.225 million, according to the Labor Department's Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey. As signs of a cooling labor market spread, the probability that the Federal Reserve will hold rates steady at its Oct. 27-28 Federal Open Market Committee meeting rose sharply. The federal funds futures market put the odds of a hold at 52.9%, up from 29.1% a day earlier, according to CME FedWatch. The odds of a 0.25 percentage point increase fell to 47.1% from 70.9%.
Falling oil prices helped limit the market's decline after Saudi Arabia resumed crude exports through the Red Sea. West Texas Intermediate crude for November delivery settled 3.48% lower at $89.38 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange, the lowest since Aug. 31. Brent crude for November delivery fell 2.56% to $102.59 a barrel on the ICE Futures Europe exchange in London, its lowest since Sept. 22.
Reuters, citing trade sources and shipping data, reported that Saudi Arabia had restarted its East-West pipeline and had begun loading crude again at the Red Sea port of Yanbu. Saudi Arabia halted the pipeline on Sept. 11 after a drone attack believed to have been carried out by Iran-backed militias in Iraq.
Expectations of behind-the-scenes contacts between the United States and Iran added to the downward pressure on oil prices. Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi remained in New York as of the previous day after traveling there for the U.N. General Assembly, according to foreign news reports.
