NEW YORK (MarketWatch) — U.S. stocks fell Tuesday, with the S&P 500 and the Dow Jones Industrial Average falling for a third straight day on uncertainty over when the Federal Reserve will begin to scale back stimulus and self-fulfilling fears the market was overdue for a pullback from record levels.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped more than 100 points during the session before settling at 15,914.62, down 94.15 points, or 0.6%, taking it well below the psychologically important 16,000 level. The drop was the index’s biggest one-day decline since Nov. 7.

The S&P 500 lost 5.75 points, or 0.3%, to 1,795.15 and the Nasdaq Composite declined 8.06 points, or 0.2%, to 4,037.20.

“I hate to use the words, ‘we’re due,’ but we’ve gone straight up,” said J.J. Kinahan, chief derivatives strategist at TD Ameritrade in Chicago.

A decision by a Michigan judge to allow Detroit’s bankruptcy to proceed over the objections of unions and retirees helped trigger added selling pressure on concerns it could set a precedent for other municipalities, analysts said. The news served as an excuse for investors to “take a little bit off the table,” Kinahan said, while emphasizing that the scale of the pullback, which has seen the S&P 500 lose ground for three consecutive sessions, remains quite modest.

The index set a record close above 1,800 last week and is up nearly 26% year to date.

While this is a big week for economic data, with November nonfarm payrolls set for release on Friday, there were no major items on the calendar Tuesday aside from monthly auto sales.