(MENAFN– ecpulse)
U.S. stocks were tiptoeing lower at the opening Tuesday after data showed a rise in home prices, and a drop in consumer confidence, while financials slid on reports that Wall Street’s fixed-income trading revenue could fall.
The Dow Jones industrial average lost 0.20% to 15370.17 points. The S&P 500 index lost 0.06% to 1700.76 points. The NASDAQ composite dropped 0.15% to 3759.53 points. As of 10:04 a.m. ET
Citigroup fell 3.2%, Goldman Sachs declined 2.65%, Morgan Stanley slid 3.4% and JPMorgan Chase dropped 2.54%.
Shares of Apple provided a boost, rising almost 5% after news that it sold roughly nine million new iPhones over the weekend.
The S&P/Case-Shiller 20-city home-price index for July rose 12.4% from year-earlier levels, in line with expectations of a 12.5% increase.
Also, the Conference Board’s consumer confidence index for September came slightly below expectations at 79.7, however dropping from 81.8 the previous month.
Traders also are weighing debt-ceiling negotiations and recent Federal Reserve comments.
The Dow Jones and the S&P 500 had touched record highs last Wednesday after the Fed surprised markets by saying it would not, as expected, start reducing its $85 billion-a-month bond buying stimulus.
But since then, stock markets have given back those gains after conflicting comments from regional Fed officials on the direction of policy. The S&P is still up almost 20% so far this year.
The Fed’s bond-buying stimulus program — known as ‘quantitative easing’ — has supported the financial, securities and housing markets and helped keep interest rates historically low.
Also weighing on stocks are the threats, however remote, of a possible U.S. government shutdown and debt default.
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