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S&P 500, NASDAQ END LOWER AS INFLATION FEARS RISE

The S&P 500 .SPX and Nasdaq .IXIC ended Tuesday lower as a hotter-than-expected U.S. consumer prices report put rising energy costs tied to the war with Iran again in the spotlight.

The consumer discretionary sector .SPLRCD dropped more than 1% and led declines among the major S&P 500 sectors.

The indexes finished off their lows of the day, however, and the Dow .DJI ended up slightly, with both Apple AAPL.O and Nvidia NVDA.O scoring record closing highs and healthcare shares .SPXHC rising. Apple rose 0.7% on the day, while Nvidia was up 0.6%, bucking the broader trend in the S&P 500 tech sector .SPLRCT, which fell 1%.

The report showed U.S. consumer prices increased at a brisk pace for a second straight month in April as the war with Iran pushed up energy costs and food prices surged. The CPI increased 0.6% last month after surging 0.9% in March.

It also strengthened some economists' expectations that the Federal Reserve would keep interest rates unchanged into 2027.

Also on Tuesday, the U.S. Senate confirmed Kevin Warsh to a 14-year term as Fed governor, marking an important step toward his succeeding Jerome Powell as the U.S. central bank's next leader.

Also worrying investors are dwindling hopes for a U.S.-Iran peace agreement. Tehran has rejected a U.S. proposal to end the conflict and stuck to a list of demands the U.S. president described as "garbage."

Here is the closing market snapshot:

(Caroline Valetkevitch)

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