Roundup: U.S. stocks tumble amid weak earnings, mixed data

U.S. stocks suffered big losses Tuesday, as economic data came in mixed and corporate earnings missed forecasts.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average slumped 291.49 points, or 1.65 percent, to 17,387.21. The S&P 500 shed 27.54 points, or 1.34 percent, to 2,029.55. The Nasdaq Composite Index dropped 90.27 points, or 1.89 percent, to 4,681.50.

New orders for manufactured durable goods in December decreased 8.1 billion U.S. dollars, or 3.4 percent, to 230.5 billion dollars, the U.S. Commerce Department announced Tuesday. This decrease, down four of the last five months, followed a 2.1-percent November drop.

"Durable orders are much weaker than expected. A global slowdown, strong dollar and weakness in the oil sector all likely contributed to orders weakness in the second half of last year," said Chris Low, chief economist at FTN Financial, in a note.

S&P Dow Jones Indices on Tuesday released the latest results for the S&P/Case-Shiller Home Price Indices, a leading measure of U.S. home prices. Data released for November 2014 showed a continued slowdown in home prices nationwide, but with price increases in nine cities.

However, U.S. consumer confidence came in at 102.9 in January, the best reading since August 2007, up from 93.1 in December, the Conference Board said Tuesday in a report.

In corporate news, Caterpillar announced Tuesday its fourth- quarter 2014 sales and revenues of 14.244 billion dollars, slightly down from 14.402 billion dollars in the fourth quarter of 2013. Profit per share in the fourth quarter of 2014 was 1.23 dollars, compared with 1.54 dollars in the fourth quarter of 2013, well below market consensus of 1.55 dollars per share. Caterpillar Shares tumbled 7.18 percent to 79.85 dollars apiece.

Shares of Microsoft plummeted 9.25 percent to 42.66 dollars apiece Tuesday, as the world's largest software company reported its earnings fell to 0.71 dollar per diluted share in the fourth quarter of 2014 from 0.78 dollar per share a year ago after Monday 's closing bell.

Investors were also keeping a close eye on the Federal Reserve' s two-day policy meeting starting Tuesday for any clues to the timing of its interest rate hike. The S&P Ratings Services forecast last Friday that the Fed would likely raise its policy rate in June this year.

The CBOE Volatility Index, often referred to as Wall Street's fear gauge, increased 10.95 percent to end at 17.22 Tuesday.

In other markets, the dollar decreased against other major currencies on Tuesday as economic data of the country came out mixed.

In late New York trading, the euro rose to 1.1367 dollars from 1.1266 dollars in the previous session. The dollar bought 117.80 Japanese yen, lower than 118.47 yen of the previous session.

Oil prices gained as the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) warned that prices may jump to 200 dollars a barrel in future without sufficient investment in production.

Light, sweet crude for March delivery gained 1.08 dollars to settle at 46.23 dollars a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange (NYMEX), while Brent crude for March delivery increased 1. 44 dollars to close at 49.6 dollars a barrel.

Gold futures on the COMEX division of the NYMEX rose as the dollar fell and U.S. durable goods orders declined.

The most active gold contract for February delivery rose 12.3 dollars, or 0.96 percent, to settle at 1,291.70 dollars per ounce. Endite