Stock market today: Wall Street slips as oil-and-gas stocks keep tumbling

NEW YORK (news agencies) — U.S. stocks are edging lower Tuesday as the price of oil keeps tumbling.

The S&P 500 was down 0.2% in early trading. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 63 points, or 0.2%, as of 9:40 a.m. Eastern time, and the Nasdaq composite was 0.2% lower.

Oil-and-gas stocks were weak a second straight day after the price of a barrel of U.S. crude slid another 1.5%. Exxon Mobil dropped 2.3%, and Halliburton fell 2.4%.

Brent crude, the international standard, sank 1.4% as worries continue about the potential for supplies to rise when demand may look suspect amid a slowing U.S. economy.

Wall Street actually wants a slowdown in the economy because that would get high inflation under control and convince the Federal Reserve to ease the brakes off financial markets by lowering interest rates. But the question is whether the slowdown overshoots and ends up in a painful recession.

A report later in the morning on job openings could offer more reassurance after data on Monday showed U.S. manufacturing contracted in May for the 18th time in 19 months. Monday’s data sent Treasury yields slid on expectations that it could push the Federal Reserve toward cutting rates. Prices also fell for companies whose profits are closely tied to the strength of the economy, those called “cyclical” companies.

But the manufacturing data “may be more noise than signal,” according to Barclays strategists Anshul Gupta and Stefano Pascale. Over the last two years, they say the relationship has broken down between surprises in the manufacturing data and the relative performance of cyclical stocks against the rest of the market.

Elsewhere on Wall Street, Bath & Body Works tumbled 8.7% despite topping expectations for revenue and profit in the latest quarter.

Designer Brands, the owner of Designer Shoe Warehouse store chain, dropped 17.6% after its first-quarter profit came in below analyst forecasts.

In the bond market, the yield on the 10-year Treasury slid again, down to 4.35% from 4.39% late Monday and 4.50% late Friday. It had been above 4.60% recently.

The two-year yield, which more closely tracks expectations for the Fed, fell to 4.78% from 4.81%.

In stock markets abroad, India’s Sensex dropped 5.7% a day after jumping 3.4% following the country’s elections.

Indexes were lower across much of Europe and mixed in Asia.

news agencies Business Writers Matt Ott and Elaine Kurtenbach contributed.