US STOCKS-Wall Street indexes ease with Nvidia down; investors digest Powell comments

By Caroline Valetkevitch

NEW YORK Sept 23 (Reuters) - U.S. stocks were lower Tuesday afternoon as Nvidia shares eased and as Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell reiterated that the U.S. central bank faces the delicate task of balancing inflation concerns with signs of labor market weakness.

Shares of Nvidia NVDA.O fell 3.1% after rising in the previous session, when the chipmaker said it plans to invest up to $100 billion in OpenAI.

Amazon.com AMZN.O, Microsoft MSFT.O and Apple AAPL.O also were lower, while shares of AutoZone AZO.N were down 1.1% after it reported fourth-quarter profit that missed estimates.

In comments prepared for delivery to Rhode Island's Greater Providence Chamber of Commerce, Powell offered little hint of when he thinks the Fed might next cut interest rates. The Fed last week cut rates for the first time this year and indicated further cuts may be coming.

"Powell has made it very clear there's still uncertainty with respect to inflation, and inflation still remains elevated. It's not a deal breaker... but it's not an all-clear, either," said Adam Sarhan, chief executive at 50 Park Investments in New York.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average .DJI fell 91.96 points, or 0.20%, to 46,289.58, the S&P 500 .SPX lost 34.67 points, or 0.52%, to 6,658.89 and the Nasdaq Composite .IXIC lost 191.63 points, or 0.84%, to 22,597.93.

The three major U.S. indexes posted record closing highs for the last three sessions.

Helping to limit declines on the Dow, Boeing gained 1.5% after it secured an order from Uzbekistan Airways worth over $8 billion.

Investors were also watching shares of Kenvue KVUE.N, the maker of popular pain medication Tylenol. They were up 2.7% on Tuesday. They closed 7.5% lower on Monday ahead of U.S. President Donald Trump's comments linking autism to childhood vaccine use and the taking of Tylenol by women when pregnant.

Advancing issues outnumbered decliners by a 1-to-1 ratio on the NYSE. There were 516 new highs and 70 new lows on the NYSE.
On the Nasdaq, 1,944 stocks rose and 2,601 fell as declining issues outnumbered advancers by a 1.34-to-1 ratio.