US indexes reverse course as stock market closes lower

By Ovunc Kutlu

ANKARA (AA) - Major indexes in the US closed lower Tuesday as stocks reversed course from their higher opening, but gold and silver showed the most gains.

The Dow Jones was down 81 points to 34,312 after the blue-chip index started the day up 0.3%. Goldman Sachs and JPMorgan were up 1.3% apiece at the first bell but ended the day off 1% each.

The S&P 500 fell 9 points to 4,188 with Tesla losing 0.2% although it began the day with a 0.9% increase.

The Nasdaq was flat, declining just 4 points to 13,657. Airbnb and Pfizer each saw a 2% decrease.

ExxonMobil and ConocoPhillips fell by more than 2% apiece as crude prices retreated.

The price of Brent crude was at $68.28 per barrel, losing 0.1%, while American benchmark West Texas Intermediate was at $65.86, falling 0.3%. The CBOE crude oil volatility index was up almost 2% to 36.23.

Despite falling earlier, the VIX volatility index added 2.4% to 18.84. However, the yield on 10-year US Treasury bonds was down 3.2% to 1.557%.

The dollar index, which shows the strength of the greenback against a basket of six major currencies, declined 0.2% to 89.69. The euro gained 0.3% against the dollar to reach 1.2247.

After rallying more than 11% on Monday to recover from a two-week slump, Bitcoin was down around 5% to $37,600.

It was precious metals that were the winners Tuesday. Gold was up 1% to finally touch the $1,900 mark, while silver rose 0.8% to break above $28.