The Nasdaq and S&P 500 slid on Tuesday driven by tech stocks, as investors gear up for what Federal Reserve chair Jerome Powell will say about the path of interest rates at a key conference later in the week.

Jerome Powell has the ideal platform Friday to deliver a clear signal the Federal Reserve is about to resume cutting interest rates. But the economy isn’t giving him an equally clear signal that now is the time.

Investors are tracking talks aimed at ending the Russia-Ukraine war and awaiting Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell's speech at Jackson Hole at the end of the week.

Incoming information has confounded Fed Chair Jerome Powell's data-dependent strategy by pulling in both directions.