US STOCKS-Wall St wobbles as rising oil and Treasury yields stoke investor unease

By Niket Nishant and Tharuniyaa Lakshmi

Sept 15 (Reuters) - Wall Street's main indexes edged lower on Tuesday, dragged down by higher crude prices, elevated Treasury yields and an uncertain outlook for AI demand that kept investors at bay.

Chipmakers, which bore the brunt of Monday's selloff, rose, with Nvidia NVDA.O advancing over 1%. But sentiment toward other Big Tech stocks was mixed, as Alphabet GOOGL.O, Microsoft MSFT.O and Apple AAPL.O fell less than 1% each.

The latest bout of anxiety was driven by calls from top AI companies to slow the development of the technology, citing safety concerns.

While there is little clarity so far on how such a slowdown would work, the declines have added to the gloom in markets at a time when above-target inflation and fears of higher borrowing costs have already clouded the backdrop for equities.

"Delays are not good on Wall Street. Any sort of slowdown would be a problem. But I think at this point, the market doesn't believe there will be a slowdown," said Joe Saluzzi, co-founder and co-head of equity trading at Themis Trading.

"There's just too many competitive factors, and some of these companies want to go public. You're not going public unless you're showing some earnings and growth."

Meanwhile, the Federal Reserve is expected to raise interest rates, with traders pricing in a 93% chance of a hike on Wednesday.

At 09:41 a.m. ET, the Dow Jones Industrial Average .DJI fell 313.32 points, or 0.60%, to 52,107.88, the S&P 500 .SPX dropped 10.36 points, or 0.14%, to 7,609.62 and the Nasdaq Composite .IXIC slipped 31.97 points, or 0.11%, to 26,156.71.

OIL PRICES WEIGH

The Middle East conflict has shown few signs of easing, keeping oil prices elevated and deepening concerns of a supply shock.

Brent crude futures rose 1.9% to $107.73, while U.S. West Texas Intermediate futures were trading at $103.64, also up 2.2%.

Among the 11 major sector indexes on the S&P 500, energy .SPNY and technology .SPLRCT were the sole winners, rising 1.4% and 0.4%, respectively.

The S&P 500 consumer staples index .SPLRCS led declines with a 0.7% drop, while the rate-sensitive real estate index .SPLRCR fell 0.8%.

"Energy is doing most of the damage on the inflationary front at present," said Anthony Saglimbene, chief market strategist at Ameriprise Financial.

The yield on the benchmark U.S. 10-year Treasury note hit its highest since 2007, as investors braced for what many expect to be the first in a series of rate increases. It was last up 4.09 basis points at 5.0019%.

The latest batch of economic data has also given little comfort to investors. The Labor Department's report last week showed consumer prices accelerated in August, while a key measure of underlying inflation posted its largest increase in four months.

Elsewhere, shares of Dave & Buster's PLAY.O tumbled more than 12% after second-quarter revenue missed expectations.

Waystar WAY.O rose 8.8% after Reuters reported the healthcare software firm is exploring options, including a potential sale.

Declining issues outnumbered advancers by a 1.81-to-1 ratio on the NYSE and by a 1.91-to-1 ratio on the Nasdaq.

The S&P 500 posted 2 new 52-week highs and 7 new lows while the Nasdaq Composite recorded 14 new highs and 95 new lows.