us stocks are sinking tuesday under the weight of tumbling energy and regional bank shares weaker job market data also points to a slowing economy all ahead of a looming federal reserve interest rate decision wednesday on monday the dow jones industrial average fell 46 points or 014 to 34052 the sp 500 declined 2 points or 004 to 4168 and the nasdaq composite dropped 14 points or 011 to 12213 a week with weighty implications for markets is already pressuring equities the mix of economic data and corporate earnings are putting investors in a riskoff mood theres no shortage of things to be concerned about already said mike loewengart head of model portfolio construction at morgan stanley ms global investment office worries over the debt ceiling standoff combined with regional bank pressures and data on a slowing labor market are all dragging down investors tuesday he said investors learned on tuesday that march job openings had decreased to 96 million notching the lowest amount of job openings since april 2021 even as openings taper the number of open positions is still high in the big picture the cooldown in the us labor market is now unambiguous  its happening job openings are no longer resisting gravity and clearly trending downward as the quits rate continues to moderate said nick bunker head of economic research at indeed hiring lab more data on the labor market comes friday with the april jobs report investors were also trying to interpret the earnings of bigname businesses companies presenting their results on tuesday included pfizer pfe and uber uber after the close advanced micro devices amd starbucks sbux and ford f will announce their results apple aapl the us markets biggest company will release its earnings on thursday in addition investors continued to digest jpmorgan chase  cos acquisition of first republic bank and what that means for bankingsector health by midday tuesday the spdr sp regional banking etf kre was down 7 while jpmorgan was off 15 the shares in certain regional banks like pacwest bancorp and western alliance bancorp were on pace for steep losses tuesday the federal reserve will deliver its monetary policy decision on wednesday when it is expected to announce a 25 basis point interest rate hike to a range of 5 to 525 the key question is whether the central banks expected hike which would be the 10th consecutive increase would be the final one in the fight against inflation federal funds futures traders on tuesday projected a 59 chance of rate cuts later this year despite central bank signals that it has no plans to pull back rates any time soon and lurking in the background is the escalating debt ceiling drama treasury secretary janet yellen said monday that the federal government could completely exhaust its capacity to pay its bills as early as june 1 the white house and lawmakers will ultimately avoid default loewengart said but the uncertainty meanwhile isnt helping well be wrung through the wringer meanwhile he said read also why it might take a stockmarket meltdown to resolve the debtceiling standoff investors were also getting a look tuesday at the manufacturing sector factory orders in march increased 09 lifted by orders for commercial airplanes economists polled by the wall street journal were anticipating a 12 increase stripping out transportation orders factory orders were off 07 for the second straight month tuesdays deep decline is happening while the sp 500 index sits near the top of the 3800 to 4200 range which it has inhabited for about six monthsthis coming week is arguably the most critical to our positive equity thesis in 2023 the sp 500 is up 9 yeartodate and has been in a solid uptrend since the oct 12 2022 lows sp 500 3491 posting gains 5 of the last 7 months and up two consecutive quarters said tom lee head of research at fundstrat in a note published at the start of the week this means there is good news priced into equities but we think this coming week could represent the make or break moment for our view and for those bearishcautious on markets lee added this content was created by marketwatch which is operated by dow jones  co marketwatch is published independently from dow jones newswires and the wall street journal