Stocks staged another comeback on Tuesday, but ultimately ended lower investors anxiously await the Federal Reserve's policy-setting meeting, which concludes Wednesday. The Dow Jones Industrial Average recovered from a drop of more than 800, but closed slightly below its flatline by the end of the session. The Nasdaq remained deep in the red throughout the session, closing down more than 2%, while the S&P 500 slipped over 1% lower.
Here's how the market settled on Tuesday:
S&P 500 Index (NYSE: SPY): -1.22% or -53.68 points to 4,356.45
Dow Jones Industrial Average (NYSE: DIA): -0.20% or -67.76 points to 34,296.74
Nasdaq Composite Index (NASDAQ: QQQ): -2.28% or -315.83 points to 13,539.29
General Motors to invest $6.6 billion in EV push:
General Motors (NYSE: GM) announced Tuesday it will invest about $6.6 billion in its Michigan facilities over the next two years to increase electric pickup-truck production and build a new EV battery cell plant. The investments are part of the $35 billion the company pledged to spend on EVs by 2025.
With these investments, GM has projected it will overtake Tesla as the top U.S.-based seller of EVs by mid-decade.
"We will have the products, the battery cell capacity and the vehicle-assembly capacity to be the EV leader by mid-decade," GM CEo Mary Barra said in a statement.
U.S. consumer confidence slips in January:
U.S. consumer confidence dipped lower in January, but more consumers plan to purchase homes, cars and other big-ticket items despite most growing less optimistic about short-term growth.
The U.S. Conference Board's consumer confidence index ticked down to a reading of 113.8 this month, the firm reported Tuesday, declining from December's downwardly revised reading of 115.2.
"The Present Situation Index improved, suggesting the economy entered the new year on solid footing," said Lynn Franco, senior director of economic indicators at the Conference Board, in a statement. "However, expectations about short-term growth prospects weakened, pointing to a likely moderation in growth during the first quarter of 2022."
Home price growth posted big annual gains, slowed month-to-month in November:
Despite the housing market's usual slow down towards the end of the year, home prices showed big annual gains in November.
U.S. home price rose 18.8% year-over-year in November, according to the S&P CoreLogic Case-Shiller National Home Price Index reading published Tuesday. However, this was a slower pace than October's rate, which was a 19% annual gain.
The 10-city composite increased 16.8% year-over-year in November, down from 17.2% in October, while the 20-city composite grew 18.3%, down from 18.5% the previous month.
"Despite this declaration, it's important to remember that November's 18.8% gain was the sixth-highest reading in the 34 years covered by our data (the top five were the months immediately preceding November)," said Craig Lazzara, managing director and global head of index investment strategy at S&P DJI, in a statement.
Here's how market benchmarks started trading soon after open:
S&P 500 Index: -1.50% or -66.22 points to 4,343.91
Dow Jones Industrial Average: -1.06% or -364.86 points to 33,999.64
Nasdaq Composite Index: -1.73% or -236.63 points to 13,618.50