US stocks slip from record highs as investors mull weak retail-sales data ahead of Fed decision

• US stocks slipped from record highs as investors mulled the disappointing retail sales ahead of the FOMC's two-day meeting.
• The 10-year Treasury yield has hovered near 1.5% for most of the day.
  
• Crude oil traded at the highest level since 2018, while lumber, gold, and copper slipped.

US stocks slipped from record highs Tuesday as investors mulled the disappointing retail sales ahead of the Federal Open Market Committee's two-day meeting.

Spending at US retailers for the month of May slumped for the first time since February as more economic restrictions were reversed and Americans settled into a new sense of normal.

US retail sales fell 1.3% in May, the Census Bureau. Economists surveyed by Bloomberg held a median estimate for a 0.7% decline. The decline places monthly sales at $620 billion and just below the record-high seen in April.

Meanwhile, investors continue to weigh inflationary pressures ahead of the FOMC decision due Wednesday. Most economists are anticipating that the central bank will leave its policy mostly unchanged. Investors will be focusing on tapering discussions, the latest economic projections, and inflation.

"Despite the 'transitory' message regarding inflation, some on the Committee must be twitching a little uncomfortably," said Marcus Dewsnap, head of fixed income strategy at IGM, which is part of Informa Financial Intelligence.

Hard data so far hasn't quite suggested the sort of second-quarter that will force economic growth to hit the Fed's 2021 projection, Dewsnap added.

The 10-year Treasury yield hovered near 1.5% for most of the day.

In March, Fed officials saw consumer prices rising 2.4% in the fourth quarter of 2021 from a year earlier. That pace, they said, would be consistent with their goal of 2% average annual inflation over the long run.

Here's where US indexes stood at the 4:00 p.m. ET close on Tuesday.

• S&P 500: 4,246.79, down 0.20%
• Dow Jones industrial average: 34,299.33, 0.27% (94.42 points)
• Nasdaq composite: 14,072.86, 0.71%

Online gaming company DraftKings plunged as much as 12% on allegations by a short seller of illegal activity. A report from Hindenburg Research, a short seller, claimed DraftKings is hiding "black market operations."

Meanwhile, short-sellers betting against meme stock AMC Entertainment lost $512 million on Monday when the movie theater chain rallied 15%, according to Reuters, citing data from analytics firm Ortex.

Solid Power, an electric-vehicle battery producer, announced it's going public by merging with blank-check firm Decarbonization Plus Acquisition Corporation III in a deal valued at $1.2 billion.

In cryptocurrencies, bitcoin finally hit the $40,000-level on Monday after trending below that level to date in June.

Still, a new survey found that hedge fund bosses are planning to ramp up their holdings of cryptocurrencies, predicting that an average of 7.2% of their assets under management will be held in digital tokens by 2026.

Crude oil traded at the highest level since 2018. West Texas Intermediate crude was up 1.96% to $72.27 per barrel. Brent crude, oil's international benchmark, gained 1.78% to $74.16 per barrel.

Gold slid 0.45% to $1,858.92 per ounce.

Copper also tumbled to a seven-week low amid concerns that China will gradually release its stockpiles in the coming months.

Lumber joined the downturn, sliding for the 10th straight day before mounting a recovery as the pandemic-driven boom in the commodity continues to show signs of weakness.