Investing.com – Wall Street traded lower on Tuesday on a string of negative company news and despite an upbeat reading to the state of the American consumer.
At 15:39GMT, or 11:39AM ET, the Dow 30 lost 57 points, or 0.31%, the S&P 500 shed 5 points, or 0.23%, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite gave up 12 points, or 0.23%.
On the data front, consumer confidence hit an 11-month high in August, beating expectations.
In a report, the Conference Board, a market research group, said its index of consumer confidence increased to 101.1 this month, its highest level since September 2015.
In a separate release, the S&P/Case-Shiller home price data rose slightly less-than-expected but the housing market still remained in good shape.
Meanwhile, Federal Reserve (Fed) vice chairman Stanley Fischer commented on Tuesday that the U.S. was “very close” to full employment, but made no remarks on the specific timing of the next rate hike, insisting that it would depend on the data.
““So I don’t think we know at the time we start whether it’s one and done or several. It depends entirely on what happens in the economy,” Fischer said in an interview with Bloomberg.
Though most experts consider Friday’s job report to be the key this week for the next decision on interest rates, Fed fund futures showed the possibility of an increase in September at a 24% on Tuesday while December odds were at 52.5%, according to Investing.com's Fed Rate Monitor Tool.
In company news, Apple Inc (NASDAQ:AAPL) capped headlines after the European Commission (EC) ruled against its tax arrangements in Ireland. The EC determined that the Irish government granted the iPhone maker undue tax benefits and may have to repay up to 13 billion euros ($14.5 billion).
Shares were down only 0.8% in midday trade after chief exec Tim Cook hit back, stating that the “claim has no basis in fact or law”, and accused the EC of trying to implement retroactive law. Both Ireland and Apple will appeal the decision in a process that could take several years.
Shares of Hershey Company (NYSE:HSY) tumbled more than 10% as Mondelez International Inc (NASDAQ:MDLZ), the maker of Oreo cookies and Cadbury chocolates, announced that it was walking away from talks to acquire the U.S. chocolate maker.
In an even bigger drop, Abercrombie & Fitch Company (NYSE:ANF) crashed 20% after reporting a larger-than-expected slump in same-store sales and admitting that it no longer foresees and improvement this year.
In oil markets, crude erased gains and turned sharply lower on reports that the Iranian oil minister indicated that the country plans to increase production to 4.75 million barrels per day by the end of the year, dashing hopes for an agreement on a production freeze despite earlier reports that Iraq had decided to attend the informal OPEC meeting to be held near the end of September.
Meanwhile, market players shifted their focus to weekly data from the U.S. on stockpiles of crude and refined products.
Industry group the American Petroleum Institute is due to release its weekly report later on Tuesday at 20:30GMT, or 16:30PM ET. Official data from the Energy Information Administration will be released Wednesday.
U.S. crude futures lost 1.13% to $46.45 by 15:42GMT, or 11:42AM ET, while Brent oil fell 1.40% to $47.86.