The stock market meandered on either side of unchanged on Tuesday, and the major averages closed the session mixed, with the Dow posting a small loss and the S&P and Nasdaq rising modestly.
Notable gainers included Linear Technology CorporationLLTC, which jumped 29 percent on an announced buyout, and Allegheny Technologies Incorporated ATI, which climbed nearly 19 percent on the day. Sanmina Corp SANM fell 15 percent after earnings and Air Methods Corp AIRM fell nearly 12 percent after the company said its Q2 results would miss expectations.
Major Averages
The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell around 19 points, or 0.10 percent, to close at 18,474.
The S&P 500 added less than a point on the session, or 0.03 percent, and ended the day at 2,169.
The Nasdaq climbed a little better than 12 points, or 0.24 percent, to 5,110 on Tuesday.
Consumer Confidence
The July Consumer Confidence Index came in at 95.8 compared to consensus estimates of 96 and a prior month figure of 98.
New Home Sales
New home sales for the month of June were 555,000 versus consensus estimates calling for new home sales of 560,000 in the month. This compares to a prior month number of 551,000.
Commodities
The commodity complex showed some weakness on Tuesday, with the Bloomberg Commodity index losing 0.24 percent.
NYMEX crude oil futures declined 0.81 percent to $42.78 on the day, while Brent contracts trading on ICE were last unchanged at $44.72. Natural gas recorded a loss of 1.75 percent to $2.70.
Precious metals traded modestly higher on Tuesday. COMEX gold futures were last up 0.03 percent to $1,319.90 while the heavily traded SPDR Gold Trust ETFGLD climbed 0.42 percent to close the equity session at $126.00. Silver futures were up 0.27 percent to $19.70 while the iShares Silver Trust ETFSLV added 0.65 percent to $18.66.
In the grains complex, both corn and wheat were lower on the session, with wheat markedly so. Corn futures fell 0.51 percent to $3.3950 while wheat lost 3.26 percent to $4.1500. Cocoa contracts trading on ICE were mostly unchanged on the day while cotton rose better than 2 percent.
Bonds
Treasury prices were slightly higher on Tuesday. At the close of equities, the iShares Barclays 20+ Year Treasury Bond ETF TLT was up 0.16 percent to $138.92.
Treasury yields were as follows on Tuesday afternoon: The yield on the 2-Year Note was 0.75 percent. The 5-Year Note was yielding 1.15 percent. The 10-Year Note was last yielding 1.57 percent while the 30-Year Bond yield was 2.28 percent.
Currencies
The U.S. Dollar was marginally lower on the session. The PowerShares DB US Dollar Index Bullish ETF UUP, which tracks the performance of the greenback versus a basket of foreign currencies, fell 0.20 percent to $25.13 on the day. The closely watched EUR/USD pair lost 0.08 percent to 1.0986 euros.
Volatility and Volume
The CBOE Volatility Index (VIX) added 1.40 percent on the day to 13.05. The 52-week range in the widely watched "fear index" is 10.88 to 53.29.
Volume was light on Tuesday with around 65 million shares of the SPDR S&P 500 ETF SPY trading hands versus a 3-month daily average of just under 100 million shares. Trading in the PowerShares QQQ Trust QQQ was also below average with around 19 million shares trading hands compared to a 3-month daily average of 25 million.
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