Adding to stock investors' sober mood, short-term US Treasury yields widened their yield premium over longer issues, steepening the yield-curve inversion. In the past, an inverted yield curve has predicted a recession.
The Dow Jones industrial average was down 61.38 points, or 0.57 percent, at 10,723.44. The Standard & Poor's 500 Index was down 6.93 points, or 0.55 percent, at 1,247.49. The technology-laced Nasdaq Composite Index was down 14.23 points, or 0.64 percent, at 2,203.93.