The S&P 500, which groups the top 500 stocks on the New York Stock Exchange, closed at 4,202 points, down 2 points or 0.05 percent. The S&P gained just 0.6 percent in May, its smallest rise in four months.
The Nasdaq Composite index, which includes high-flying tech stocks such as Facebook, Amazon, Apple, Microsoft, Netflix and Google, closed at 13,736, down 12 points or 0.01 percent. That came on the heels of May’s 1.5 percent drop for the Nasdaq - the tech bellwether’s first monthly loss since November 2020.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average, the broadest US equity barometer, closed at 34,575, up 46 points or 0.1 percent.
A rash of recent economic data has shown the United States making a faster-than-expected recovery from the coronavirus pandemic that has throttled growth since March 2020. While investor optimism has been lifted by such data, concerns about creeping inflation have suppressed stock prices since last month.
Federal Reserve Governor Lael Brainard said on Tuesday the US economy was still far from goals set by the Fed but the central bank was nevertheless ready with its toolkit to moderate inflation should price pressures thwart the recovery.