The Dow Jones Industrials tumbled 232.39 points to 32,656.70.
The S&P 500 fell 12.09 points to 3,970.15.
The NASDAQ Composite dropped 11.44 points to 11,455.54.
Stock buybacks are one of the core tenets of a bullish case for the market in 2023, as some expect buybacks to top $1 trillion for the first time.
One area where buyback announcements have been strong is the energy sector, where Occidental Petroleum on Monday announced a new $3 billion authorization for buybacks and a dividend hike.
Pandemic-darling Zoom Communications posted better-than-expected earnings and a solid outlook Monday after the bell. But it wasn’t enough to get some on Wall Street off the sidelines.
Earnings for the quarter came in at $1.22 per share, adjusted, which is above the consensus estimate of 81 cents from analysts polled by Refinitiv. Revenue also came in above expectations at $1.12 billion compared with the $1.1 billion anticipated by analysts.
Tuesday marked the last day of February. Despite a solid start to the year, the major indexes are due to suffer their second negative month in three.
The Dow was down 4% for the month and is down year to date. The S&P 500 has lost 2.5%, and NASDAQ has handed over 1% in February.
Those losses came after a strong start to the year for stocks; the S&P 500 rallied more than 6% in January.
Prices for the 10-year Treasury hesitated, raising yields back to Monday’s 3.93%. Treasury prices and yields move in opposite directions.
Oil prices gained $1.19 to $76.87 U.S. a barrel.
Gold prices gathered $9.80 to $1,834.70 U.S. an ounce.