Wall St falls, hit by Reid's ' fiscal cliff ' comments

NEW YORK (Reuters)-u.s. stocks slipped on Tuesday in a choppy session, losing ground in the last hour before the closure after Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid expressed disappointment that there has been "little progress" in dealing with the "fiscal cliff."

The market was strong flat for most of the session, but fell after Reid's comments, a signal that investors remain skittish about the wrangling in Washington. The CBOE volatility Index, or the VIX, jumped on Reid's words.

"It may be that the market feels the goodwill before (last week) Thanksgiving to more political intransigence develops," said Quincy Krosby, market strategist at Prudential Financial in Newark.

"The clock is ticking on Wall Street, with regard to a framework for the (political) consensus," she said.

Markets are focused on whether Congress and the White House can agree on ways to prevent some $ 600 billion in cuts and tax increases the automatic due to kick in early next year.

As budget negotiations hang, Las Vegas Sands (LVS.N) and Supertex (SUPX.O) added their names to a growing list of companies announcing special dividends aimed at helping investors to avoid a possibly higher tax burden next year.

Higher dividend and capital gains taxes are part of the negotiations in Washington and even if a deal be manipulated can be increased.

Las Vegas Sands jumped 5.3 percent to $ 46.36. Supertex rose by 6.9 percent to $ 18.

The S P 500 with 's-& modest losses on Tuesday marked its worst day in eight sessions – give traders are unwilling to aggressively sell if a deal would probably lead to a rally. The benchmark S & P 500 closed again under 1,400, an important psychological level that it had recovered last week as it rose nearly 4 percent.

The VIX.VIX shot up 2.7 percent to 15.92 at closing. Between 2 pm and 3 pm in New York the VIX rose 3.9 percent.

The Dow Jones industrial average.DJI fell 89.24 points, or 0.69 percent, to 12, 878.13 at the end. The S P 500 &. SPX fell 0.52 percent, or 7.35 is points, to end at 1, 398.94. The Nasdaq Composite lost 8.99 points, or 0.30 percent, IXIC. to end at 2, 967.79.

Transactions in Washington strong economic figures, including a darkened increase planned spending and consumer business confidence hitting the highest level in more than four years.

Strengthening the case for a sustainable rebound in housing construction, single-family home prices rose for an eighth straight month in September. Shares of M/I homes (MHO.N) acquired 2.1 percent to $ 22.36. KB Home (KBH.N) added 1.1 percent to $ 14.61.

"As long as you have an interest rate as low as they are now, housing is definitely back," said Brian Amidei, managing director at HighTower Advisors in Palm Desert, California.

In another good sign for consumer demand, Corning Inc. (GLW.N) shares rose 6.9 percent to $ 12.13 after the specialty glass maker said that it expects that the sale of its entire year Gorilla glass, which is used in smartphones and tablets, approach $ 1 billion.

Food maker Ralcorp Holdings (RAH.N) shares rose 26.4% to $ 88.80 after long time freer unknown foods (CAG.N) sealed a deal to buy for $ 5 billion. Unknown acquired shares 4.7 percent to $ 29.63.

McMoRan exploration co. (MMR.N) shares tumbled 15.2 percent to $ indoor per day after the oil and gas industry driller gave a disappointing update on a prospect important gas in a Gulf of Mexico.

Approximately 5.9 billion shares changed hands on the New York Stock Exchange, Nasdaq and NYSE MKT, below the daily average so far this year of about 6.5 billion shares.

On the NYSE, about five issues fell for every four that rose. Six stocks fell on Nasdaq for the five that rose.

(Reporting by Rodrigo Campos; Additional reporting by Caroline Valetkevitch; Edit Jan Paschal)

. pagination_article

View the Original article