Stocks ended Tuesday's volatile session in the red as market participants were concerned about rising inflation and high valuations, with tech stocks taking the biggest hit in the morning. However, tech names rebounded in the afternoon, but the comeback did not spread to the rest of the market.

On the economy front, U.S. job openings surged to a record high in March at 8.123 million, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics' monthly report, its highest level since the BLS began tracking the metric in 2000. March's reading topped expectations and jumped from February's upwardly revised reading of 7.526 million. Moreover, the layoff and discharge rate fell to a series low of 1.0% in March, while the quits rate remained unchanged March-over-February at 2.4%.

Meanwhile, small business optimism rose to a five-month high in April, according to the National Federation of Independent Business' monthly survey. The headline index increased to 99.8 in April from 98.2 in March, bringing the Optimism Index up by a total of 4.8 points over the last three months. Despite the more upbeat outlooks, a record 44% of small business owners reported they had job openings that could not be filled, and the net percent of owners increased average selling prices by 10 percentage points to 36%.

"Small business owners are seeing a growth in sales but are stunted by not having enough workers," NFIB Chief Economist Bill Dunkelberg said in a statement. "Finding qualified employees remains the biggest challenge for small businesses and is slowing economic growth. Owners are raising compensations, offering bonuses and benefits to attract the right employees."

Here's how the market settled on Tuesday:

S&P 500 Index (SPY  ): -0.87% or -36.34 points to 4,152.09

Dow Jones Industrial Average (DIA  ): -1.36% or -472.47 points to 34,270.35

Nasdaq Composite Index (QQQ  ): -0.09% or -12.43 points to 13,389.43

For Stocks, Novavax (NVAX  ) share dropped on Tuesday after the company pushed back its timeline for seeking COVID-19 vaccine approvals in the U.S., U.K, and European Union to the third quarter, with full production now expected by the fourth quarter.

For Sector Performance, Materials (XLB  ) was the only sector to end the session in the green, with Real Estate (XLRE  ), Utilities (XLU  ), Industrials (XLI  ), Financials (XLF  ) and Energy (XLE  ) leading losses.

For Commodities and Currency, the U.S. Dollar (UUP  ) fell in earlier in the session and then stabilized towards market close as investors braced for potential rising inflation. The dollar index fell as low as 89.979 against six other currencies and was last down 0.11% at 90.138 in afternoor trade. Gold (GLD  ) prices declined on rising U.S. Treasury yields, but losses were capped by the weaker dollar. Spot gold was down by 0.1% at $1,834.19 per ounce in late afternoon trade, while U.S. gold futures settled 0.1% lower at $1,836.10 per ounce. Crude oil futures rose on Tuesday, as investor were still concerned over possible gasoline shortages due to the Colonial Pipeline cyber attack. International benchmark Brent Crude (BNO  ) climbed 0.5% to $68.67 per barrel, while domestic index West Texas Intermediate (USO  ) settled 0.8% higher at $65.41 each.

For Wednesday, market participants will focus on key inflation data for April's consumer price index and core CPI.