Wall Street drifts lower after post-election surge

NEW YORK —  U.S. stocks drifted lower Tuesday as momentum cooled for the torrid “Trump trade” that swept Wall Street after Donald Trump’s presidential victory.

The Standard & Poor’s 500 slipped 0.3% a day after setting its latest all-time high. The Dow Jones industrial average dropped 0.9% and the Nasdaq composite fell 0.1%.

Stocks had been broadly rising since last week on expectations that Trump’s preference for lower tax rates and other policies may mean faster economic growth, as well as bigger U.S. government debt and higher inflation. Some areas of the market rocketed on particularly high-grade fuel, such as smaller U.S. stocks seen as benefiting the most from Trump’s “America first” ideas.

They gave back some of their big gains Tuesday, and the Russell 2000 index of smaller companies fell a market-leading 1.8%. Even Tesla, which is run by Trump’s ally Elon Musk, sank. It dropped 6.1% for its first loss since before election day.

The stock that has become most entwined with Trump’s popularity, Trump Media & Technology Group, fell 8.8%.

UnitedHealth Group was one of the heaviest weights on the S&P 500; it fell 1.7% after the U.S. Justice Department sued to block its $3.3-billion purchase of Amedisys, saying the deal would hinder access to home health and hospice services. Amedisys sank 1.8%.

A jump in Treasury yields also added pressure on the stock market, as trading of U.S. government bonds resumed after Monday’s Veterans Day holiday. The yield on the 10-year Treasury jumped to 4.42% from 4.31% late Friday, which is a notable move for the bond market.

Treasury yields have been climbing sharply since September, in large part because the U.S. economy has remained much more resilient than feared. The hope is that it can continue to stay solid as the Federal Reserve continues to cut interest rates to keep the job market humming, now that it has helped get inflation down nearly to its 2% target.

Some of the rise in yields has also been because of Trump. He talks up tariffs and other policies that economists say could drive inflation and the U.S. government’s debt higher. That puts upward pressure on Treasury yields and could hinder the Fed’s plans to cut interest rates. Lower rates can boost the economy, but they can also give inflation more fuel.

The next update on inflation will arrive Wednesday, when the U.S. government will give the latest reading on prices that U.S. consumers are paying across the country. Economists expect it to show inflation accelerated to 2.6% in October from 2.4% the month before. But they’re also looking for the core inflation rate — which ignores prices for groceries and fuel, which can zigzag sharply from one month to another — to stay steady at 3.3%.

Helping to limit Wall Street’s losses was Live Nation Entertainment, which joined the lengthening list of U.S. companies delivering stronger profit for the summer than analysts expected. The company behind Ticketmaster said concert fans around the world are spending more to hear artists, and it said trends are already encouraging for 2025 stadium tours for Coldplay and others. Its stock rose 4.7%.

Tyson Foods jumped 6.5% after likewise topping analysts’ forecasts for profit. The producer of beef, chicken and pork also raised its dividend for investors.

Home Depot pulled back 1.3% despite beating analysts’ profit expectations, as it continues to contend with a pullback in spending by customers.

All told, the S&P 500 slipped 17.36 points to 5,983.99. The Dow dropped 382.15 points to 43,910.98, and the Nasdaq composite fell 17.36 points to 19,281.40.

Stocks usually rally after close elections, but this spurt is “clearly faster than prior ones,” according to Parag Thatte and other strategists at Deutsche Bank. It has the S&P 500 on track to deliver a return of more than 20% for a second straight year. That’s happened only three times in the last 100 years, according to Deutsche Bank.

In the crypto market, bitcoin soared to another record before pulling back. Trump has embraced cryptocurrencies generally and pledged to make the U.S. the crypto capital of the world. Bitcoin got as high as $89,995, according to CoinDesk, before dipping back toward $89,500. It started the year below $43,000.

In stock markets abroad, indexes fell across much of Europe and Asia. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng dropped 2.8%, one of the worst declines. It closed below the 20,000 level for the first time since China announced a stimulus package in September.

Choe writes for the Associated Press. AP writer Yuri Kageyama contributed to this report.