NEW YORK — U.S. stocks dropped Tuesday as investors weighed company news and the latest report on consumer prices.
Signs that the dollar could resume its recent surge also made investors nervous.
Homebuilders bucked the trend, gaining after sales of new U.S. homes in February climbed to their fastest pace in seven years.
The stock market has drifted lower for two straight days. The declines follow a rally in the market last week when Federal Reserve policymakers surprised investors by suggesting they were in no hurry to raise interest rates. Those low rates have helped power a six-year bull run for stocks.
“We’re in something of a holding pattern as markets continue to digest all that’s going on,” said Kristina Hooper, U.S. investment strategist at Allianz Global Investors.
On Tuesday, the Standard & Poor’s 500 index fell 12.92 points, or 0.6 percent, to 2,091.50; the Dow slipped 104.90 points, or 0.6 percent, to 18,011.14; and the Nasdaq composite dropped 16.24 points, or 0.3 percent, to 4,994.73.
Stocks were little changed throughout the morning before drifting lower in the afternoon.
The slump in stocks coincided with a rally in the dollar. The U.S. currency had started the day lower against the euro before erasing those losses.
The dollar index, which measures the strength of the U.S. currency against a basket of others, such as the euro and Japanese yen, has climbed 15 percent in the past six months.
In other economic news, a modest rebound in gas costs and broad gains in other categories lifted consumer prices for the first time in four months. The consumer price index rose 0.2 percent in February, the Labor Department said Tuesday, after dropping 0.7 percent the previous month.
Utilities declined the most of the 10 industry sectors in the S&P 500. They are the worst-performing group in the index this year, falling 5.8 percent.
These stocks typically pay dividends that are high relative to their companies’ share prices. They were in demand last year, when government bond yields fell.
