The S&P 500 fell slightly Tuesday as Wall Street looked to find its footing after an uneven start to the month.
The broad market index pulled back by 0.2%, while the Nasdaq Composite lost 0.3%. The Dow Jones Industrial Average ticked up 32 points, or 0.08%.
Chevron, Dow Inc and Caterpillar fell roughly 1%, keeping gains for the Dow in check. Bath & Body Works was the worst-performing stock in the S&P 500, losing 10% on the back of disappointing guidance.
Investors also parsed a fresh reading on job openings. Employment data from the Labor Department showed 8.059 million vacancies in April, the lowest level in over three years. An estimate from Dow Jones called for 8.4 million openings.
Investors want a labor market that’s weak enough to allow the central bank to cut interest rates, but not so weak that it worry over a potential recession rise.
The move comes after the Dow fell more than 115 points, or 0.3%, on the first trading day of June. The S&P 500 and Nasdaq Composite both rose modestly on Monday.
Weak manufacturing data weighed on market sentiment, as investors are waiting to see if growth can hold up while the Federal Reserve waits for inflation to decline enough to cut interest rates.
“I think the indices themselves are a little bit flawed right now,” Bank of America head of U.S. equity and quantitative strategy Savita Subramanian told CNBC’s “Squawk Box” on Tuesday. “I almost feel like when you peel back the onion and look at the underlying stock market, what makes me feel better is that earnings are coming in positive for a broader array of companies in the S&P it’s not just the ‘Magnificent Seven’ that’s doing all the work for the index.”