(MENAFN- ProactiveInvestors) U.S. stocks plummeted on Tuesday with the Dow down more than 350 points after data and earnings disappointed.
As of noon in New York the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 351 points to 17330 while the Nasdaq lost 83 points to 4689 and the S&P 500 dropped 29 points to 2028.
Kicking off economic reports today the government reported durable goods declined 3.4% in December well below the forecast of a 0.1% gain.
Later in the morning the November Case-Shiller report on home prices showed the 20-city index rose 0.7% to match October's revised gain. Despite the strength in monthly sales the year-on-year rate edged two tenths lower to plus 4.3%. Meanwhile new home sales surged 11.6% in December to a 481000 annual rate which is outside the top estimate of the Econoday forecast of 445000 to 470000.
The January consumer confidence index also rose sharply to 102.9 topping expectations and up from the prior revised reading of 93.1.
The main event this week however is the two-day meeting of policymakers which begins today with the latest statement due tomorrow at 2:00pm ET.
It was a busy day for corporate earnings as well with six Dow components reporting today. Caterpillar () shares fell 7.5% after reporting adjusted fourth quarter earnings well short of forecasts and issued a disappointing outlook for the year.
() also issued downbeat guidance for 2015 due to a stronger US dollar and patent losses. The company's quarterly results beat estimates however. Shares edged down.
() posted a disappointing outlook for the year taking a big hit on earnings from the strengthening US dollar. Shares were off almost 3% Tuesday.
() issued fiscal second quarter profit that missed expectations while also lowering its growth outlook for the year with shares dropping 3.8%.
() backed its fiscal 2015 outlook on Tuesday which is mostly below the current FactSet consensus and posted sales in line with estimates with shares falling over 1.4%.
() shed over 4.8% after its quarterly results as the company's profit came in well short of expectations on lower sales. It said it would cut its 2015 capex and other costs by $2 billion.
() late Monday reported earnings that were in line with estimates while revenue topped views but the software giant forecast a slower-than-expected increase in cloud-based revenue and a drop in commercial licensing sales. The stock dropped more than 9% in Tuesday's action.
United Technologies () also late yesterday reported earnings that matched estimates while revenue came in slightly below forecasts. The company cut its full year outlook due to the effects of a stronger dollar. Shares were off 1.4%.
(NASDAQ:TXN) posted earnings that came in in line with forecasts while revenue also matched expectations helped by increasing business from automakers.
After the closing bell () Yahoo () and AT&T () will be among those companies headling the quarterly results action.
In other news () and its Instagram service suffered temporary outages early this morning but the social network said an internal software error was the culprit and not a hacker group which claimed responsibility for the outages.
Oil prices steadied as the dollar weakened against the euro while also drawing support after OPEC's Secretary-General Abdullah al-Badri said that prices may have bottomed and warned of a risk of a future jump to $200 a barrel if investment in new supplies was too low. WTI crude for March delivery was up 74 cents at $45.87 a barrel in New York. Gold futures rose $14 to $1294 an ounce amid the decline in equities.
European markets finished broadly lower today led by shares in Germany while Asian shares also mostly settled in the red.
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