Stocks are showing a lack of conviction in early afternoon trading on Tuesday, as the day's mixed economic data has polarized market sentiment. The major averages are lingering near the unchanged line after yesterday's rally, looking for direction.
While the National Association of Realtors reported that a much steeper than expected drop in pending home sales in the month of November, the Commerce Department said that new orders for manufactured goods rose by more than anticipated.
On the corporate front, Kraft Foods (KFT), which is trying to acquire British chocolate maker Cadbury (CBY), said it agreed to sell the assets of its North American pizza business to Nestle for a total consideration of $3.7 billion.
The firm said that it would use an amount equivalent to the net proceeds from the sale to increase the cash portion of its offer for Cadbury.
However, Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway Inc. (BRK-A, BRK-B) voted "no" on Kraft's proposal to authorize the issuance of up to 370 million shares to facilitate the acquisition of Cadbury, as it believes that Kraft share are a very expensive "currency" to be used in an acquisition.
In the tech sector, Google (GOOG) has garnered considerable market attention today as it is expected to introduce its own mobile phone unit, dubbed as Nexus One, for use with its Android operating system.
Meanwhile, Apple Inc. (AAPL) plans to buy mobile ad company Quattro Wireless for $275 million, according to media reports. The deal comes after Google announced plans in November to buy AdMob, another mobile ad provider, for $750 million.
The major averages currently remain near the unchanged line, with the S&P 500 posting a modest gain. While the S&P 500 is up 0.79 at 1,133.78, the Dow is down 32.73 at 10,551.23 and the S&P 500 is down 2.44 at 2,305.98.
Sector News
Despite the choppy outing by the markets today, airline stocks remain notably higher, with the NYSE Arca Airline Index up by 3.9 percent. The strong upward move by airline stocks comes amid news from Continental Airlines (CAL), which reported better-than-expected December revenues.
Oil service, banking and railroad stocks are also seeing considerable strength, while pharmaceutical stocks are some of the day's worst performers. The NYSE Arca Pharmaceutical Index is down by 1.3 percent, nearly offsetting all of yesterday's gain.
GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) is one of leading decliners in the sector, posting a loss of 2.8 percent. With the decline, the stock is pulling back off of the fifteen month closing high set yesterday.
Trucking, utility, and software stocks are also moving lower, keeping the markets grounded near the unchanged mark.
Stocks In The News
Brightpoint Inc. (CELL) is moving lower after the firm said that its fourth quarter adjusted income from continuing operations is expected to be between $0.13 and $0.18. Wall Street analysts expect earnings of $0.19 per share for the quarter. The stock has fallen by 11.7 percent, setting a five month intraday low.
Oracle Corp. (ORCL) is also under pressure after announcing that it has acquired Silver Creek Systems, Inc., a provider of product data quality solutions. Shares of Oracle are currently down by 1.4 percent, falling further from the nearly nine year high set last month.
On the other hand, Reinsurance Group of America Inc (RGA) is moving higher after ING Group (ING) announced that it has closed the transaction to transfer its U.S. group reinsurance business, ING Reinsurance U.S., to RGA. Shares of RGA are now up by 1.5 percent, jumping to a more than two-month high.
In Focus: Economic Data
As mentioned above, NAR said its pending home sales index fell by 16.0 percent to 96.0 from an upwardly revised 114.3 in October. Economists had been expecting a much more modest decrease of about 2.0 percent.
Separately, the Commerce Department said that factory orders increased by 1.1 percent in November following an upwardly revised 0.8 percent increase in October. Economists had expected orders to increase by 0.5 percent compared to the 0.6 percent increase originally reported for the previous month.
Other Markets
In overseas trading, nearly all of the stock markets across the Asia-Pacific region closed higher on Tuesday. Japan's benchmark Nikkei 225 Index rose by 0.3 percent, while Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index surged up by 2.1 percent.
Meanwhile, the major European markets closed on a mixed note. The U.K.'s FTSE 100 Index gained 0.4 percent, while the German DAX Index fell by 0.3 percent. The French CAC 40 drifted lower by less than a tenth of a percent.
In the bond markets, treasuries remain notably higher following the day's mixed batch of data. Subsequently, the yield on the benchmark ten-year note, which moves opposite of its price, is trading at 3.773 percent, posting a loss of 6.8 basis points.
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June 12, 2026 17:14 ET Major central bank action was the focus this week in economic news. The European Central Bank became the first major central bank to move in response to the rising inflationary pressures in the backdrop of the conflict in the Middle East. In North America, the U.S. inflation and trade data as well as Canada’s central bank decision gained attention. The Chinese trade data was the main news in Asia.