Stocks pull back on Wall Street as concerns about inflation grow

Banks and energy companies led a broad pullback for stocks Tuesday, knocking the Dow Jones Industrial Average more than 470 points lower and wiping out the market’s gains from last week. The Dow sank 1.4%, its worst day since Feb. 26. Treasury yields mostly edged higher.

The market’s downturn so far this week reflects worries among investors that inflation is rising. Any significant acceleration of inflation would be a drag on the overall market and could crimp the broader economic recovery. The selling comes ahead of a key measure of inflation at the consumer level due to be released by the government Wednesday.

Commodity prices have been rising as have energy commodities like gasoline and crude oil. Tech stocks, which get most of their valuation from expected profits, become less valuable if inflation decreases the value of those earnings.

Big technology companies were among the biggest decliners for a second straight day. Still, financial and energy companies, the best-performing sectors of the S&P 500 so far this year, fell the most.

The S&P 500 index lost 36.33 points (0.9%) to 4,152.19. The Dow fell 473.66 (1.4%) to 34,269.16. The Nasdaq lost 12.43 (0.1%) to 13,389.43. The Russell 2000 index of small-company stocks fell 5.71 (0.3%) to 2,206.99.