US stocks fall after extended rally as investors look to Fed minutes and Nvidia earnings

• The US stock rally faded ahead of the release of the Fed meeting minutes and Nvidia earnings
• Fed minutes will give investors a better grasp of where interest rates may be headed.
• Tuesday also disappointed markets with weak earnings from retailers.

US equities dropped Tuesday as investors struggle to sustain the latest market rally.

Where October's surprising inflation slowdown helped indexes jump on hopes that the Federal Reserve has finished tightening interest rates, some central bank officials have continued to remind markets that more rate hikes are a possibility.

Investors will be parsing the Fed meeting minutes, which will be released at 2 p.m. and will paint a clearer picture of where monetary policy may be headed. Currently, markets are widely expecting rates to remain steady through the rest of the year.

The stock rally was also hobbled by weak retail earnings, which led stocks including home improvement retailer Lowe's and clothing retailer American Eagle to tumble at the open.

Investors will be closely watching he upcoming Nvidia earnings report, a staple of the "Magnificent 7" tech cohort. The firm's share price hit a new all-time high this week, on expectations of strength in profits and sales.

Here's where US indexes stood shortly after the 9:30 a.m. ET open on Tuesday:

• S&P 500: 4,536.58, down 0.24%
• Dow Jones Industrial Average: 35,067.40, down 0.24% (-83.64 points)
• Nasdaq Composite: 14,216.25, down 0.47%

Here's what else happened today:

• "Magnificent 7" stocks gained $150 billion market cap in a day as OpenAI drama drove investor activity.
• The market's "Santa rally" may have arrived early this year.
• A former jazz critic lost out on a $6 million fortune after selling Apple shares 25 years too soon.

In commodities, bonds and crypto:

• West Texas Intermediate crude oil slipped 0.67% to $77.31 per barrel. Brent crude, oil's international benchmark, dropped 0.62% to $81.79.
• Gold climbed 1.16% to $2,003.70 per ounce.
• The yield on the 10-year Treasury dipped one basis points to 4.41%.
• Bitcoin fell 1.03% to $37,100.7