The Globe and Mail reports in its Tuesday edition that stocks fell Monday after U.S. Federal Reserve chair Jerome Powell pushed back firmly against speculation that rate cuts would be imminent, while investors assessed a mixed bag of U.S. earnings reports. A Reuters dispatch to The Globe says that Toronto lost 1 per cent, a steeper decline than New York amid weakness in materials and utilities sectors. Mr. Powell said more evidence on a sustainable downtrend in inflation was needed to warrant lower rates, while Minneapolis Fed president Neel Kashkari wrote in an essay Monday that a resilient economy could delay rate cuts for some time. Fresh data from the Institute for Supply Management showed the U.S. services sector's growth picked up in January, with a measure of input prices rising to an 11-month high. This added to doubts about rate cuts, already kindled by Friday's data, which signalled the labour market's resilience in the face of tight credit conditions. Adding pressure was the Treasury market, with both U.S. and Canadian 10-year yields up sharply for a second straight trading day, and hitting their highest level since late January. Canadian service sector activity slowed for an eighth straight month in January.