The U.S stock market posted its worst daily decline in about a year as a result of hotter-than-expected inflation statistics for January, which also caused U.S Treasury yields to rise and cast doubt on the Federal Reserve’s ability to lower rates many times this year, which was a major component of the bull case for the equity market. 

The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 524.63 points, or 1.35%, to settle at 38,272.75 index points. The 30-stock index fell 757.52 points, or 1.95%, at its lowest point. The Nasdaq Composite dropped 1.8% to end at 15,655.60 index points, while the S&P 500 sank 1.37% to conclude at 4,953.19. 

The Russell 2000 also recorded a terrible session falling almost 4% for the first time since June 2022. January saw a 0.3% increase in the consumer price index from December. The CPI increased by 3.1% annually.  

Core prices, which do not include energy and volatile food components, increased by 3.9% from a year ago and by 0.4% from month to month. It was anticipated that the core CPI would have grown by 3.7% from a year ago and by 0.3% in January. 

The 10-year Treasury yield surpassed 4.32%, while the 2-year Treasury yield surged past 4.66% in the wake of the CPI report. Tech stocks led the losses in trading on Tuesday, with Microsoft and Amazon leading the way. These companies have guided the market to record highs as rates have decreased. Amazon and Microsoft each had losses greater than 2%. 

Activist investor Carl Icahn revealed owning a roughly 10% interest in JetBlue Airways, which caused the company to soar about 22%. After missing analyst forecasts for the fourth quarter, toymaker Hasbro saw a 1.4% decline in shares. Shares of Avis Budget Group fell by almost 23% due to weak sales in the fourth quarter.