- Greek Exit Could Trigger 50% Fall in Euro Stocks: Analyst
- Big Stock Upside for Hudson City Deal: Analyst
- 5 High-Yield Stocks Ready to Boost Dividends
- Option Bulls Take Another Shot on Idenix
- Top 20 European Stocks for Crisis Time: Strategist
- Hewlett-Packard Faces a ‘Dogfight’ for Talent: Analyst
- DuckDuckGo Cooks Google’s Goose: Analyst
- General Electric’s $4.5 Billion Dividend Slated for Buybacks
- Spain's Debt Costs Near Danger Level: Is Bailout Next?
- US Markets Will Be Watching Europe—And Jobs Report
- India's Tumbling Rupee Roils Convertible Bond Market
- European Companies Plan for Greek Unrest and Euro Exit
- Japan's Marubeni Nears $5 Billion-Plus Gavilon Deal
- Public Pensions Faulted for Bets on Rosy Returns
- Greece to Leave Euro Zone on June 18: Wealth Manager
- Italy 2-Year Borrowing Costs at Peak Since December
- Euro Bond Wins Supporters, but Details Remain Vague
MOST SHARED
- Greece Pours $22.6 Billion Into Four Biggest Banks
- Greece to Leave Euro Zone on June 18: Wealth Manager
- Europe Has Wall Street's Bull on a Short Leash
- Spain's Borrowing Costs Near Danger Level: Bailout Next?
- European Firms Plan for Greek Unrest and Euro Exit
- Collectors Wary Of Investing In Josh Hamilton
- The Shortage of Women Billionaires
- 11 Ways to Finance a Start Up
MOST POPULAR
HOT ON FACEBOOK
Dow Loses 1.4% After Late Selloff
Text Size 
Stocks fell sharply Tuesday, dragged down by disappointing housing data and weakness in energy shares amid uncertainty about regulating offshore drilling.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average lost 148.89, or 1.4 percent, to close at 10,293.52.
Alcoa [AA
Loading...
()
] and Caterpillar [CAT
Loading...
()
] were the biggest Dow decliners.
Just two stocks finished higher on the Dow — and barely — Johnson & Johnson [JNJ
Loading...
()
] and Merck [MRK
Loading...
()
].
Investors took a one-two punch of bad news this morning: Existing-home sales fell 2.2 percent in May from April, and Fitch Ratings slashed its rating on BNP Paribas, the largest bank in the euro zone by deposits.
The S&P 500 shed 1.6 percent and the Nasdaq fell 1.2 percent. The CBOE volatility index, widely considered the best gauge of fear in the market, was above 26 at the closing bell.
All 10 key S&P sectors were lower, led by energy as oil fell to $77.21 a barrel.
A federal judge reversed the six-month ban on deepwater drilling imposed by the Obama administration. The White House vowed to appeal.
US-traded shares of BP [BP
Loading...
()
] fell more than 2 percent after CEO Tony Hayward backed off from managing the oil spill and Bob Dudley, who has managed the company's problems in Russia, took the reins for managing the crisis.
Utilities and industrials were also weak. Gold ticked higher, settling at $1,239.90 an ounce.
Apple [AAPL
Loading...
()
] rose more than 1 percent after Deutsche Bank raised its price target on the stock, while Barclays Capital said a new carrier for Apple's iPhone "would extend and accelerate the iPhone 4 cycle." The iPhone 4 is expected to debut this week. Apple
Shares of Verizon [VZ
Loading...
()
] were unchanged after CEO Ivan Seidenberg said the telecommunications firm is ready to sell the iPhone, but the decision is up to Apple.
U.S. tech executives anticipate increases in global IT spending internationally and expect to see stronger revenue and profit ahead for the industry next year, according to a recent survey by KPMG.
The survey also found that most of its respondents ranked China and India as the top countries to have the highest revenue growth and the highest employment growth during the next 12 months.
"The big firms are going to do very well,” Mark Stahlman of TMT Strategies told CNBC. “We’re going to have better than expected results from IBM [IBM
Loading...
()
], which is highly leveraged to infrastructure in the developing world. And Intel [INTC
Loading...
()
] said they are going to double their top and bottom-line growth in the next few years."
Financial stocks ended lower as House and Senate Democrats are scrambling to complete their financial regulation overhaul before President Obama meets with world leaders at G20 meeting in Canada this weekend, ironing out differences on a range of complicated provisions from bank regulation to consumer protection.
JPMorgan shares [JPM
Loading...
()
] shed 1.4 percent after the bank shook up its management.
And Goldman Sachs [GS
Loading...
()
] and Morgan Stanley [MS
Loading...
()
] lost more than 1 percent after William Blair analysts said the stocks are attractive but cut its second-quarter earnings forecast on both.
Treasurys gained after a strong auction of two-year notes. The $40 billion sale fetched a high yield of 0.738 percent and the bid-to-cover ratio was 3.45.
Auctions of 5-year and 7-year notes are expected in the next two days, respectively.
The dollar rose and the yuan slipped after Chinese state-owned bank snapped up dollars in what some analysts said may be another way for the Chinese central bank to keep the currency's appreciation in check. This came after weekend news that China planned to loosen its peg on the yuan to the dollar, a move that had initially given stocks a boost.
The Federal Reserve's Open Market Committee begins its two-day policy meeting Tuesday, issuing its latest pronouncement on interest rates and the economy Wednesday at around 2:15 pm New York time.
The Fed is expected to keep its key policy rate—the federal-funds target rate, at record low near zero to revitalize the economy, a decision the central bank has maintained since December 2008.
On the earnings front, Walgreen [WAG
Loading...
()
] tumbled 6.5 percent after the drugstore chain reported a weaker-than-expected profit.
Rite Aid [RAD
Loading...
()
], Nike [NKE
Loading...
()
] and Bed Bath & Beyond [BBBY
Loading...
()
] all finished lower ahead of the companies' earnings reports, due out on Wednesday.
Earthlink [ELNK
Loading...
()
] declined as the Internet provider filed a petition with the FCC to block the planned merger of Comcast [CMCSA
Loading...
()
] and NBC Universal (NBC is the parent company of CNBC; both are owned by GE [GE
Loading...
()
]). Earthlink says the deal would be anti-competitive.
AMR shares [AMR
Loading...
()
] skidded after a report said the FAA had found cracks in three American Airline planes, which were made by Boeing [BA
Loading...
()
].
Volume was light, with about 1.1 billion shares changing hands on the New York Stock Exchange. Decliners outpaced advancers, roughly 4 to 1.
This Week:
TUESDAY: Primary runoff elections; Earnings from Adobe after the bell
WEDNESDAY: Weekly mortgage apps; new home sales; weekly oil inventories; 5-yr note auction; FOMC interest rate decision; Galleon hearing; Earnings from Nike and Bed Bath & Beyond
THURSDAY: Durable goods orders; weekly jobless claims; 7-yr note auction; iPhone 4 on sale; Yahoo shareholders meeting; Earnings from Lennar, Oracle and Research In Motion
FRIDAY: Final read on Q1 GDP; corporate profits; consumer sentiment; XTO shareholders meeting on Exxon buyout; Earnings from KB Home
More From CNBC.com:
- 20 Stocks With Potential to Drop
- Cramer’s Top 13 Dividend Plays
- World Cup Countries: Rating the Economies
Data is a real-time snapshot *Data is delayed at least 15 minutes
