What happens next Where's my refund? Best CD rates this month Shop and save 🤑
MONEY
U.S. Department of Commerce

Stocks close slightly lower; oil prices jump

Ed Brackett
USA TODAY

Stocks recovered from steep early losses and closed slightly lower Tuesday as Treasury yields and oil prices jumped.

Investors remained uneasy as negotiations on Greece's bailout plan continued.

The major indexes had languished in the red all morning, following news of a slump in factory orders, before turning up in afternoon trading and then dipping again in late trading.

Traders work on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange.

The Dow Jones industrial average fell 28.43, or 0.2%, to 18,011.94 and the Standard & Poor's 500 index dropped 2.13 points, or 0.1%, to to 2109.60.

The tech-heavy Nasdaq composite index fell 6.40 points, or 0.1%, to 5076.52.

Energy stocks jumped as the price of oil continues to climb. U.S. benchmark crude was up 1.9% to $61.35 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange.

The yield on the 10-year Treasury note jumped to 2.26% from 2.18% Monday, on inflation concerns as consumer prices rose in Europe for the first time in six months.

In economic news, factory orders fell 0.4% in April, the eighth decline in nine months, according to Commerce Department figures.

Investors are glued to developments in debt-plagued Greece, which faces a Friday deadline for paying the IMF 300 million euros. The payment is the first installment on a loan of 1.6 billion euros -- about $1.8 billion.

Also in Europe, a stronger-than-expected consumer May inflation reading in the eurozone has rattled investors. They view the news as good for the economy but worry it could cut short bond purchases in the region. The inflation data comes a day before the ECB's meeting on monetary policy.

European benchmarks finished lower, with Britain's FTSE 100 slipping 0.4%, Germany's DAX losing 0.9% and France's CAC-40 off 0.4%.

Asian markets ended mixed as Japan's Nikkei 225 lost 0.1% and Hong Kong's Hang Seng index fell 0.5%, while the Shanghai Composite rocketed 1.7%.

Contributing: Adam Shell.

Featured Weekly Ad