Stocks Remain Stuck In Negative Territory In Mid-Day Trading - U.S. Commentary

(RTTNews) - After coming under pressure early in the session, stocks continue to see modest weakness in mid-day trading on Tuesday. The drop on the day has partly offset the strength seen in the previous session.

In recent trading, the major averages have moved roughly sideways, stuck in negative territory. The Dow is down 45.71 points or 0.3 percent at 18,177.32, the Nasdaq is down 22.65 points or 0.4 percent at 5,287.17 and the S&P 500 is down 7.30 points or 0.3 percent at 2,144.03.

The weakness on Wall Street comes as traders react to the latest batch of earnings news, with a number of big-name companies releasing their quarterly results.

Shares of Sonic (SONC) have fallen sharply on the day after the fast food chain reported better than expected fiscal fourth quarter earnings but provided disappointing guidance.

Sportswear maker Under Amour (UA) has also come under pressure after the company said its growth rate going forward will be less than expected.

On the other hand, shares of Procter & Gamble (PG) have shown a strong move to the upside after the consumer products giant reported fiscal first quarter results that exceeded analyst estimates.

3M (MMM), Caterpillar (CAT), and DuPont (DD) are among the other well known companies that released their quarterly results on the day, while tech giant Apple (AAPL) is due to release its results after the close.

In economic news, the Conference Board released a report showing a bigger than expected drop in consumer confidence in the month of October.

The Conference Board said its consumer confidence index fell to 98.6 in October after climbing to 103.5 in September. Economists had expected the index to drop to 101.0.

"Consumers' assessment of current business and employment conditions softened, while optimism regarding the short-term outlook retreated somewhat," said Lynn Franco, Director of Economic Indicators at the Conference Board.

She added, "Overall, sentiment is that the economy will continue to expand in the near-term, but at a moderate pace."

Sector News

Housing stocks have shown a significant move to the downside on the day, dragging the Philadelphia Housing Sector Index down by 2 percent. With the drop, the index has fallen to its lowest levels in nearly four months.

Masco (MAS) has led the housing sector lower, with the cabinetry manufacturer slumping by 9.2 percent after reporting weaker than expected third quarter results.

Notable weakness is also visible among networking stocks, as reflected by the 1.1 percent drop by the NYSE Arca Networking Index.

Meanwhile, gold stocks have moved sharply higher as the day has progressed, driving the NYSE Arca Gold Bugs Index up by 3.3 percent. The strength among gold stocks comes as gold for December delivery is climbing $10.40 to $1,274.10 an ounce.

Other Markets

In overseas trading, stock markets across the Asia-Pacific region turned in a mixed performance during trading on Tuesday. Japan's Nikkei 225 Index advanced by 0.8 percent, while Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index edged down by 0.2 percent.

The major European markets also ended the day mixed. While the U.K.'s FTSE 100 Index rose by 0.5 percent, the German DAX Index closed just below the unchanged line and the French CAC 40 Index fell by 0.3 percent.

In the bond market, treasuries have moved to the upside as the day has progressed. Subsequently, the yield on the benchmark ten-year note, which moves opposite of its price, is down by 1.4 basis points at 1.749 percent.