By Kate Gibson, MarketWatch
NEW YORK (MarketWatch) -- U.S. stocks fell on Tuesday, extending
losses into a second day, as Wall Street signaled caution after
mixed economic data and before major earnings releases in the days
ahead.
"Here we are on the eve of bank earnings coming out tomorrow,"
said Peter Cardillo, chief market economist at Rockwell Global
Capital, pointing to upcoming reports from J.P. Morgan Chase &
Co. (JPM) and Goldman Sachs Group Inc. (GS).
"Then we have other banking stocks on Thursday and Friday, along
with General Electric Co. (GE), so the market remains on the
skittish sidelines here," he added.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJI) fell 20.74 points, or
0.2%, to 13,486.58, while the Standard & Poor's 500 index (SPX)
declined 3.21 points, or 0.2%, to 1,467.47, with technology the
greatest laggard and consumer shares the best performing of its 10
major sectors.
The Nasdaq Composite (RIXF) shed 16.54 points, or 0.5%, to
3,100.97.
For every three stocks climbing four fell on the New York Stock
Exchange, where 152 million shares traded as of 11 a.m.
Eastern.
Composite volume hit 822 million.
Shares of Apple Inc. (AAPL) fell 2.5% to $489.40, a day after
the technology company's drop pushed two of the three benchmark
indexes into the red as Apple lost nearly 4% on reports it had cut
orders for iPhone 5 parts on weak demand -- that erased $17 billion
from the stock market.
Lennar Corp. (LEN) on Tuesday reported profit that topped
expectations, but shares of the home builder fell 0.8%.
Shares of Dell Inc. (DELL) rose 1.4%, a day after reports that
the PC maker was considering a buyout via two private-equity
firms.
"Over the next week, mixed economic data and earnings are likely
to keep the market quite defensive, so we're provably headed to a
shallow pullback of 2% to 3%," said Cardillo at Rockwell Global
Capital.
Ahead of Tuesday's opening bell, U.S. stock futures remained
moderately lower after economic reports had retail sales climbing
0.5% and producer prices off 0.2% in December, while a gauge of
manufacturing activity in the New York region contracted in
January.
"We did have some better-than-expected retail sales [...] thanks
to Detroit, and inflation at the producer level is obviously not a
problem. The one thing that did take me by surprise was the New
York manufacturing index, which was worse, as I was looking for a
small gain here," said Cardillo.
U.S. Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke said on Monday
afternoon that the Fed's aggressive bond-buying program is unlikely
to lead to higher inflation. He also said that Congress should
swiftly raise the debt ceiling.
Fitch reiterated its warning Tuesday that a delay in raising
that ceiling would lead to a formal review of the country's AAA
sovereign credit rating. On Monday, U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy
Geithner said the U.S. could hit the debt ceiling between
mid-February and early March unless Congress took action to raise
it.
Subscribe to WSJ: http://online.wsj.com?mod=djnwires