By Yasin Ebrahim

Investing.com – The S&P 500 eased from fresh record Tuesday, as a retreat in tech offset gains in industrials and a rebound in the airline stocks followed a rout a day earlier.

The Nasdaq fell 0.2% while it gained 0.2% or 90 points.

Stocks of airline stocks, including Southwest Airlines (NYSE) and United Airlines (NASDAQ) recovered from weakness one day before when it was reported that Covid-related problems including labor shortages caused airlines to cancel thousands more flights over Christmas weekend.

Boeing (NYSE:), was also rising after Indonesia lifted the ban on the 737 MAX. Following the accident of a Lion Air domestic jet, the MAX was grounded.

Defensive sectors, such as utilities, consumer staples, and other commodities, were the greatest gainers, indicating that market sentiment was still cautious.

The broader market’s retreat from record highs coincided with sluggish price action in big tech following several days of gains.

Microsoft (NASDAQ) was the leader in tech selloffs, with a drop of about 3%. Alphabet, Google, Apple, Facebook, and Amazon were all in red.

Technology was also affected by a drop in chip stocks. This was accompanied by a decrease in Nvidia, MRVL, and MU.

Tesla (NASDAQ;) has, however, given up on intraday gains despite positive Wall Street commentary.

“Musk & Co. have navigated the chip supply shortages better than any automaker globally over the last six months, which is why Tesla is in a clear position of strength heading into 2022 with an inflection point year ahead,” Wedbush said.

Economically, U.S. prices grew for the third month in a row.

In other news, Cryptocurrency-related stocks including Riot Blockchain (NASDAQ:NASDAQ:), Marathon Digital, Coinbase (NASDAQ:) Global, were on the backfoot after bitcoin fell below $50,000.