Dow ends 160 points lower, but stocks trim losses after Moody’s bank downgrades

U.S. stocks finished lower on Tuesday, but were off the session’s worst levels, after Moody’s Investors Service late Monday cut its credit ratings for several U.S. reginal banks and threatened other major lenders with downgrades. The Dow Jones Industrial Average
DJIA,
-0.45%
shed about 158 points, or 0.5%, ending near 35,314, according to preliminary FactSet data. The blue-chip index traded about 300 points lower earlier in the session. The S&P 500 index
SPX,
-0.42%
shed 0.4% and the Nasdaq Composite Index
COMP,
-0.79%
lost 0.8%. The S&P 500’s financial and materials sectors led stocks lower Tuesday, ending down 0.9% and 1.1%, respectively, as investors digested Moody’s decision to lower its credit rating on almost a dozen regional banks, and threatened to downgrade six other major U.S. lenders. The credit rating firm pointed to exposure to commercial real estate at smaller and medium-size banks and overall interest-rate risks as reasons for its negative rating actions. Investors also were monitoring a deepening economic slowdown in China.