Thursday's CPI report is expected to show cooling at the core, optimism that fed gains for the stock market on Monday but had faded by Tuesday. The Dow slipped 0.5 percent while Treasury yields firmed, up 1 basis point for the 10-year to 4.02 percent.

The plug-door plunge had only limited effect on Boeing and Sprit Aerosystem in Tuesday's session, down 1.4 and 0.4 percent respectively. JetBlue fell 10.2 percent on news its CEO is stepping down for health reasons.

Unity Software held down tech stocks reflected in the Nasdaq which egded 0.1 percent lower. The company fell 8.0 percent after cutting 1,800 jobs.

A narrowing trade gap headed Tuesday's economic calendar, easing $1.3 billion in December to $63.2 billion on improvement tied largely to easing oil prices. The result was better than expected and left Econoday's Relative Performance Index at a very solid 35 to indicate that recent US data are handily beating forecasts.

Market Reflections track market reaction to the trading day's major events. Economic data, policymaker speeches, and company news are featured in this report as well as key indexes and financial instruments.

Understanding why markets respond as they do is fundamental for an investor. Market Reflections help explain how the day's events, news, and data impact the outlook for the economy and for market prices.