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At the closing bell in New York the Dow Jones dropped 131 points to settle at 17371 while the Nasdaq fell 60 points to end at 4593 and the S&P 500 shed 18 points to finish at 2003.
On the US economic calendar investors got a reading on November factory orders which fell 0.7% hit by transportation equipment. The reading matched economists' forecasts.
Japan's Nikkei stock average fell 3% overnight its worst day since mid March due to falling oil prices and concerns about the eurozone.
China's Shanghai Composite bucked the negative trend in Asia ending up 0.1% after the country's HSBC services PMI rose to 53.4 last month from November's 53 -- its fastest pace in three months.
In Europe Markit's final December composite PMI missed an earlier flash reading of 51.7 coming in at 51.4 with the weakness calling for more aggressive bank stimulus. European markets finished lower today with shares in London leading the region.
Commodities
On the New York Mercantile Exchange light sweet crude for delivery in February fell US$2.11 or 4.2% to close at US$47.93 a barrel its lowest finish since April 2009.
Gold for February delivery rose 1.3% or US$15.40 to finish at US$1219.40 an ounce on the Comex division of the New York Mercantile Exchange.
Silver futures for March delivery climbed 2.6% to US$16.64 an ounce on the Comex.
Platinum futures for April delivery rose 0.9% to US$1221.40 an ounce while palladium futures for March delivery rose 0.9% to US$800.40 an ounce ending a five-session slump.
Wall Street round-up
In corporate activity Johnson & Johnson (NYSE:JNJ) said it has started a trial of its experimental Ebola vaccine in the UK saying it will produce 2 million courses of the shot this year.
Verizon (NYSE:VZ) has reportedly refused to comment on reports it has approached AOL (NYSE:AOL) about a potential acquisition or joint venture to expand its mobile video offerings. Shares of AOL jumped over 3.3% Tuesday.
Coach (NYSE:COH) has confirmed it is buying privately-held luxury shoe maker Stuart Weitzman in a deal valued at up to $574 million. Sycamore Partners acquired Stuart Weitzman last year as part of its $2.2 billion purchase of Jones Group.
Facebook (NASDAQ:FB) has acquired Wit.ai the creator of a voice recognition tech platform whose interface will remain open and free after it joins Facebook. The social network declined to say how much it paid for the company.
Xoom (NASDAQ:XOOM) fell 0.4% after the online money transfer company said someone stole over $30 million in corporate cash by transferring it to an overseas account.
Micron Technology (NASDAQ:MU) fell 2.7% today as the chipmaker reports its quarterly results after the closing bell. The stock is up about 57% in the past 12 months.
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