This pause in the market rally is brought to you by � well, we really have no idea, do we?
And do we care? As we noted last week, any down day in the nearly past six months has represented nothing but an opportunity to snap up your favorite index exchange-traded fund and wait for the next leg up.
On Tuesday, however, the mood seemed to be set from abroad � the European and Asian markets were mixed in the wake of mixed economic data � including news that consumer prices in China moved higher in January than expected, even with a �re-weighting� of food inflation data.
What that piece of news from China means for the growing concern about rising food prices, as well as a possible hard economic landing to come in that country, was as good a reason as any for stocks in the U.S. to take a breather.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average dipped 42 points to 12,226, the Nasdaq fell 13 points to 2804, while the S&P 500 dropped 4 points to 1328.
The underperformance of smaller stocks that has generally been the case this year was present again � the Russell 2000 Index fell 0.7%.
Financial stocks gave up the fight during the market�s session. Despite hitting a 52-week intraday high earlier on Tuesday, the SPDR Financial Select Sector (NYSE:XLF) exchange-traded fund finished down 2 cents to $17.07. Shares of Bank of America (NYSE:BAC) were not helped, to the tune of falling 0.8%, after revelations that hard-hitting investors Warren Buffett and John Paulson had both shed their shares.
Homebuilder stocks continue to have a rough go of it in the past week. The SPDR S&P Homebuilders (NYSE:XHB) ETF was off 1.3%, and is down 2.6% since a near-term intraday high set last Wednesday.
What did work on Tuesday were mining stocks and assorted precious metal names. Gold and silver prices each added 0.6%. Oil, however, traded down to $84.32 a barrel, its lowest level since Nov. 30.
Hotel stocks also found strength on the wings of a strong quarterly profit report late Monday from Marriott (NYSE:MAR), which saw its stock rise 1.1%.
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