us stocks recorded losses on tuesday settling lower for a third session in a row the sp 500 index has dropped over 5 since fed chair jerome powell said the central bank will remain aggressive in its monetary policy stance to fight inflation us job openings increased to 11239 million in july while a separate report showed consumer confidence recovered strongly during the month of august after falling for three consecutive months megacap stocks including microsoft corp msft and apple inc aapl also closed lower on tuesday the nasdaq 100 fell 113 to close at 1234270 on tuesday while the sp 500 fell 110 the dow jones tumbled around 308 points to settle at 3179087 in the previous session majority of the sectors on the sp 500 closed on a lower note with energy stocks recording the biggest plunge on tuesday investors are now awaiting the release of nonfarm payrolls data due this friday the chicago board options exchanges cboe volatility index vix closed flat at 2621 points on tuesday the cboe volatility index popularly known as vix is a measure of the equity markets expectation of volatility based on sp 500 index call and put options