US Stocks Fall Amid Geopolitical Tensions and Inflation Fears

The US stock market indices closed lower on Tuesday as investors await key inflation data due out on Wednesday.

The S&P 500, Nasdaq 100, and Dow Jones Industrial Average all fell by 0.3% each, while the Russell 2000, which tracks smaller stocks, added 0.3%.

Futures tied to the Dow Jones were flat, but those for the S&P 500 and Nasdaq inched up 0.1%, suggesting some caution before the CPI data release.

The VanEck Semiconductor ETF (SMH) jumped 0.7%, while the Vanguard Information Technology ETF (VGT) slipped 0.1% due to weakness in stocks like Alphabet (GOOG, GOOGL), Amazon (AMZN), and SpaceX (SPCX).

The July consumer price index is predicted to show a minor uptick in monthly inflation, with a 0.1% increase in the headline figure and a 0.2% gain in the core metric.