U.S. stocks edged lower Tuesday as Wall Street continued a sluggish start to the week, with investors continuing to monitor China's COVID policy and look ahead for Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell’s scheduled speech.

The S&P 500 (^GSPC) was down 0.2%, while the technology-heavy Nasdaq Composite (^IXIC) ticked lower by 0.6%. The Dow Jones Industrial Average (^DJI) was virtually flat for the day.

The slump came after all three stock indexes finished lower Monday, as protests against China’s strict COVID policies had far-reaching consequences across global markets. The S&P 500 declined more than 1%, the first time it did so on a post-Thanksgiving Monday since 2008, according to Bespoke Investment Group. The U.S. dollar weakened against a basket of peers, following days of gains, as the yuan dipped.

In oil markets Tuesday, the global benchmark Brent crude climbed 2.6% to trade above $86 a barrel. WTI crude oil rose about 2% on Tuesday, closing just below $79 a barrel after reaching lows for the year early Monday.

The yield on the benchmark 10-year Treasury note rose to 3.755% from 3.701% on Monday.

Monday’s sell-off accelerated following remarks of two Federal Reserve officials, who stressed the central bank's rate-hiking campaign will continue. New York Fed President John Williams on Monday said there was still "more work to do" to bring down inflation.

"Stronger demand for labor, stronger demand in the economy than I previously thought, and then somewhat higher underlying inflation, suggest a modestly higher path for policy relative to September," Williams told reporters Monday after an event hosted by the Economic Club of New York.

At another event, St. Louis Fed President James Bullard said "we've got a ways to go to get restrictive.” Bullard also pointed out that the Fed’s target policy rates need to rise to at least a range between 5.00% and 5.25% from the current level of 3.75%-4.00% to be "sufficiently restrictive" to curb inflation.