Stock market today: Wall Street slumps as good news for the economy is once again bad for stocks

NEW YORK (AP) — Good news on the U.S. economy is back to being bad for Wall Street, and the stock market slumped Tuesday following better-than-expected reports on the job market and business activity.

The S&P 500 fell 1.1% after giving up an early gain. The Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 178 points, or 0.4%, while the Nasdaq composite tumbled 1.9%.

Stocks dropped under the weight of rising yields in the bond market, which jumped immediately after the release of the encouraging reports on the economy. One said U.S. employers were advertising more job openings at the end of November than economists expected. The other said activity for finance, retail and other services businesses grew much faster in December than expected.

The strong reports are of course good news for workers looking for jobs and for anyone worried about a possible recession that earlier seemed inevitable to pessimists. But such a solid economy could also keep up pressure on inflation, and it could make the Federal Reserve less likely to deliver the cuts to interest rates that Wall Street loves.

The Fed began cutting its main interest rate in September to give the economy a boost, but it’s hinted a slowdown in easing is coming. The threat of tariffs from President-elect Donald Trump has raised worries about possible upward pressure on inflation, which has stubbornly remained just above the Fed’s 2% target.

Tuesday’s report on U.S. services industries from the Institute for Supply Management also contained discouraging trends on inflation, saying price increases accelerated in December.

Expectations for fewer cuts to interest rates in 2025 had already been building for weeks, which sent longer-term Treasury yields upward. So have worries about other possible Trump policies, such as tax cuts, which could swell the U.S. government’s debt and likewise push yields higher.

Those higher yields make Treasury bonds more attractive to investors who might otherwise buy stocks, which in turn puts downward pressure on stock prices, and the super-safe bonds are paying notably more. The yield on a 10-year Treasury climbed to 4.69% from 4.63% shortly before the release of Tuesday’s reports and from just 4.15% in early December.

High yields can put heavy pressure on stocks seen as the most expensive, which pulls the lens toward Nvidia and other Big Tech stocks that have soared in the frenzy around artificial-intelligence technology.

Nvidia had been on track to set another all-time high in morning trading, after CEO Jensen Huang unveiled a suite of new products and partnerships the night before. He talked up the potential for AI technology in robotics, among other opportunities for big growth.

But after Tuesday morning's economic reports, which hit the market after its first half hour of trading, Nvidia swung to a loss of 6.2% and became the heaviest weight on the S&P 500. Losses for Amazon, Tesla, Apple and Microsoft were the next-strongest forces dragging the index lower.

Now that worries from the summer about a potentially slowing U.S. economy have abated and the 10-year Treasury yield is firmly above 4.50%, “we believe the market is shifting into a ‘good news is bad news’ environment again,” according to Bank of America strategists led by Ohsung Kwon.

That raises the stakes for Friday’s coming update on the U.S. job market, which economists expect will show a slowdown in overall hiring. They’re looking for growth of 156,500 jobs in December, according to FactSet.

A “Goldilocks” reading for the U.S. stock market that would be solid but not too strong for the Fed would likely be in the 125,000 to 175,000 range, along with an unemployment rate of 4.2%, according to Bank of America.

Helping to keep Tuesday’s losses for U.S. stock indexes in check was Cintas, which rose 2% after making public its offer to buy its smaller rival, UniFirst, for $275 per share in cash.

Cintas said it first made that offer in November but has been unable to get UniFirst’s board to meet. UniFirst had rejected an earlier offer of $255 per share, said Cintas, which provides uniforms, restroom supplies, fire extinguishers and other products to businesses.

UniFirst jumped 20.9% to $204.69, below Cintas’ offer price.

Elsewhere on Wall Street, Shutterstock and Getty climbed after they announced they were joining to become a $3.7 billion visual content company to provide customers with a broader array of still imagery, video, music, 3D and other media.

Getty Images shareholders will own a slight majority of the combined company. Getty shares jumped 24.1%, while Shutterstock climbed 14.8%.

All told, the S&P 500 fell 66.35 points to 5,909.03. The Dow Jones Industrial Average slipped 178.20 to 42,528.36, and the Nasdaq composite sank 375.30 to 19,489.68.

In stock markets abroad, some notable Chinese companies fell after the U.S. Defense Department added dozens of them to a list of companies it says have ties to China’s military. The announcement caused some of the companies to protest and say they will seek to have the decision reversed.

Added to the list were gaming and technology company Tencent, artificial intelligence firm SenseTime and the world’s biggest battery maker CATL. Tencent’s stock that trades in Hong Kong fell 7.3%.

That helped pull the Hang Seng index down 1.2%, but indexes were stronger elsewhere in China and across much of Asia and Europe.

AP Business Writers Yuri Kageyama and Matt Ott contributed.

Traders work on the floor at the New York Stock Exchange in New York's Financial District Thursday, Jan. 2, 2025. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig)

Stock price board is seen after a ceremony marking the start of this year's trading Tokyo Stock Exchange Monday, Jan. 6, 2025, in Tokyo. (AP Photo/Eugene Hoshiko)

A trader works on the floor at the New York Stock Exchange in New York's Financial District Thursday, Jan. 2, 2025. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig)

Currency traders work near a screen showing the Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI), top left, and the foreign exchange rate between U.S. dollar and South Korean won, top center, at the foreign exchange dealing room of the KEB Hana Bank headquarters in Seoul, South Korea, Tuesday, Jan. 7, 2025. (AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon)

A currency trader passes by a screen showing the Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI), left, and the foreign exchange rate between U.S. dollar and South Korean won at the foreign exchange dealing room of the KEB Hana Bank headquarters in Seoul, South Korea, Tuesday, Jan. 7, 2025. (AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon)

A currency trader works near a screen showing the Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI), left, and the foreign exchange rate between U.S. dollar and South Korean won at the foreign exchange dealing room of the KEB Hana Bank headquarters in Seoul, South Korea, Tuesday, Jan. 7, 2025. (AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon)

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. (AP) — Two bodies were found in the landing gear compartment of a JetBlue aircraft at a South Florida airport, the latest security breach involving the nation's aviation system, authorities said.

The bodies were discovered in the wheel well area during a routine post-flight inspection on Monday night at Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport, the airline said in a statement to The Associated Press.

The aircraft had arrived in Fort Lauderdale shortly after 11 p.m. from John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York.

"At this time, the identities of the individuals and the circumstances surrounding how they accessed the aircraft remain under investigation," JetBlue's statement said.

“This is a heartbreaking situation, and we are committed to working closely with authorities to support their efforts to understand how this occurred,” the airline added.

Paramedics declared both people dead at the scene, the Broward County Sheriff's Office said Tuesday. The agency's homicide and crime scene units are investigating, it said.

Both are believed to be men, said Carey Codd, a spokesman for the Broward County Sheriff’s Office, told the AP.

“Beyond that, their identities at this point are unknown, and that is some of the information that Broward sheriff's office detectives are trying to sort out at this point,” Codd said.

“Detectives will investigate and research all aspects of this particular incident, trying to figure out where the flight originated from, where else it had been, the circumstances under which the individuals got onto the plane," Codd added.

Though its most recent flight was from New York to Fort Lauderdale, the jet had been in both Kingston, Jamaica, and Salt Lake City, Utah, earlier on Monday, according to the flight tracking service FlightAware.com. Authorities haven’t said where they think the people got into the wheel well.

In Jamaica, the plane’s recent stop in the Caribbean nation gave rise to speculation that the people could be Jamaican, a government official said on social media.

However, “our information to date is that this matter still remains unclear and there is no immediate basis on which to conclude that they are Jamaicans,” Kamina Smith, minister of foreign affairs and foreign trade of Jamaica, said in a post on the social platform X.

“We therefore remain in contact with the relevant authorities and will update the public as soon as greater clarity and accuracy has been brought to bear on this tragic matter,” she said.

Autopsies are planned for both bodies to determine how they died, Codd said.

The Transportation Security Administration is working closely with the airline, the airport, local law enforcement agencies and the Federal Aviation Administration, a TSA spokesperson said Tuesday.

It appears there was “no involvement of the flight crew or operation of the airplane,” the National Transportation Safety Board said in a statement Tuesday morning. That agency was not investigating, it said.

The fact that people were able to reach the wheel well of a commercial jetliner is the latest incident raising concerns about security within the nation’s aviation system.

“What you have to look at is what gaps were exploited and what layers of security didn’t work to allow something like this to happen,” said Jeff Price, professor of aviation at Metropolitan State University of Denver.

“It speaks to the ability to access an aircraft possibly without going through any of the procedures that normal passengers would go through,” he said.

It's the second time over the past month that a body has been found in the wheel well of an airplane. In late December, a body was found in the wheel well of a United Airlines plane after it landed in Maui from Chicago.

The airline industry in recent months has also been dealing with unticketed passengers found in cabins.

In November, a Russian national who did not have a ticket boarded a Paris-bound Delta Air Lines flight in New York and was arrested when the plane touched down in France. She had somehow bypassed security to board the flight, authorities said.

Then on Christmas Eve, a passenger without a ticket boarded a Delta Air Lines flight from Seattle to Honolulu. The passenger was discovered while the plane was taxiing for departure, Delta said at the time.

Martin reported from Atlanta. Walker reported from New York. Associated Press writer Dave Collins reported from Hartford, Connecticut.

FILE - A JetBlue Airways Airbus A320-232 takes off from the Tampa International Airport in Tampa, Fla., May 15, 2014 (AP Photo/Chris O'Meara, File)