The Dow Jones Industrials came off their lows of the morning, but were still negative 206.9 points to 30,774.43.
The S&P 500 lost 19.44 points to 3,799.36.
The NASDAQ Composite dropped 37.31 points to 11,227.53.
All major S&P 500 sectors declined on Wednesday, with the exception of consumer discretionary boosted by gains in tech. Shares of Boeing,
Dow and Walgreens slid more than 1% each, dragging the Dow into negative territory.
Battered tech shares Amazon and Tesla staged a comeback on Wednesday, rising more than 1% each despite mounting growth concerns.
The move briefly brought the tech-heavy NASDAQ into positive territory. Twitter’s stock rose 6.4% as the social media company sued Elon Musk.
Along with the inflation report, investors continued to monitor second-quarter earnings for clues into the health of U.S. companies. Delta Air Lines shares dropped 6.3% after posting mixed results.
Amid the news, United dipped 2%, and American Airlines lost 5%. Struggling cruise stocks Norwegian, Royal Caribbean and Carnival each fell about 2%.
The consumer price index rose 9.1% on a year-over-year basis in June, coming in even higher than May’s 8.6% reading, which was the biggest increase since 1981. Economists surveyed by Dow Jones’ had anticipated an 8.8% print.
Core CPI, which excludes food and energy prices, came in at 5.9% and above the 5.7% estimate.
Treasury prices gained ground, lowering yields to 2.95% from Tuesday’s 2.97%. Treasury prices and yields move in opposite directions.
Oil prices fell 29 cents to $95.55U.S. a barrel.
Gold prices regained $12.30 to $1,737.10 U.S. an ounce.