us stocks were sharply lower tuesday under the weight of tumbling regional bank and energy shares weaker job market data also pointed to a slowing economy ahead of a 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 corporate earnings reports weak economic data ongoing concerns about regional us banks and the deadlock in congress over raising the debt ceiling are all 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 investors learned on tuesday that march job openings had decreased to 96 million the lowest since april 2021 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 is due on friday with the april jobs report investors also got 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 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 jpm 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 may 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 lower rates any time soon and lurking in the background is the escalating debt ceiling drama us 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 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 monthssell in may decided it didnt need to wait for the fed edward moya senior market analysts at oanda said wall street is quickly hitting the sell button as banking turmoil appears it is not going away anytime soon and was ready to focus on the next weakest link potentially distressed lenders with tremendous exposure to commercial real estate risk appetite did not stand a chance as traders focused on lingering doubts over the regional banks rising recession odds and growing risks that the us could default on its debt next month 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