Dow Plunges 450 Points Amid Small Business Sentiment Decline

U.S. stocks took a hit on Tuesday, with the Dow Jones index plummeting by around 450 points.

The Dow traded down 0.84% to 52,963.03, while the NASDAQ dipped 0.17% to 26,461.84 and the S&P 500 fell 0.21% to 7,702.01.

Energy shares bucked the trend, rising by 1.4% on Tuesday, but health care stocks took a hit, dropping 2.2%.

The US NFIB Small Business Optimism Index also declined in August, coming in at 98.7 compared to 99.8 in July and missing market estimates of 99.3.