After falling sharply earlier in the trading session on Tuesday, stocks have regained some ground but remain firmly in the red. The Dow currently remains on pace to end the session at its lowest closing level in five months.
Currently, the major averages are stuck in negative territory. The Dow is down 127.64 points or 0.7 percent at 17,555.94, the Nasdaq is down 61.97 points or 1.2 percent at 4,929.97 and the S&P 500 is down 12.59 points or 0.6 percent at 2,056.17.
The weakness on Wall Street comes amid continued concerns about the Greek debt crisis after the Greek people voted on Sunday to reject the austerity measures proposed by the country's international creditors.
The "no" vote on the referendum has added to recent worries about Greece leaving the eurozone, a move commonly known as the "Grexit."
European finance ministers are scheduled to meet later in the day as part of a last-ditch effort to reach a new bailout agreement.
Jonathan Loynes, Chief European Economist at Capital Economics, said, "It is still just about possible to imagine some sort of agreement coming together which would keep Greece inside the currency union, in the short term at least."
"It would presumably lie somewhere between the creditors' last offer - rejected by the Greek public in last weekend's referendum - and the latest counter-offer advanced on June 30th by [Prime Minister] Tsipras," he added.
However, Loynes said it might very soon be time to accept the inevitable and refocus efforts on how best to manage the Grexit.
The selling pressure also reflects a sharp drop by commodities prices, which is contributing to significant weakness among resource socks.
Meanwhile, the Commerce Department released a report before the start of trading showing that the U.S. trade deficit widened in the month of May.
The report said the trade deficit widened to $41.9 billion in May from a revised $40.7 billion in April. Economists had expected the deficit to widen to $42.7 billion.
The wider deficit came as the value of exports slid 0.8 percent to $188.6 billion, while the value of imports edged down 0.1 percent to $230.5 billion.
Sector News
Gold stocks continue to see substantial weakness in mid-day trading, with the NYSE Arca Gold Bugs Index down by 3.6 percent. Earlier in the session, the index hits its worst intraday level in almost twelve years.
The weakness among gold stocks comes amid a steep drop by the price of the precious metal, as gold for August delivery is plunging $21.10 to $1,151.80 an ounce.
Considerable weakness also remains visible among banking stocks, as reflected by the 2.5 percent loss being posted by the Dow Jones Banks Index. The index is poised to end the session at its lowest closing level in nearly two months.
Steel, semiconductor, brokerage, and networking stocks are also seeing significant weakness, while utilities and commercial real estate stocks are bucking the downtrend.
Other Markets
In overseas trading, stock markets across the Asia-Pacific region turned in a mixed performance during trading on Tuesday. Japan's Nikkei 225 Index shot up by 1.3 percent, while Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index slumped by 1 percent.
Meanwhile, the major European markets all moved sharply lower on the day. While the U.K.'s FTSE 100 Index tumbled by 1.6 percent, the German DAX Index and the French CAC 40 Index plummeted by 2 percent and 2.3 percent, respectively.
In the bond market, treasuries continue to see considerable strength, extending yesterday's rally. As a result, the yield on the benchmark ten-year note, which moves opposite of its price, is down by 7.2 basis points at 2.206 percent.
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April 17, 2026 15:29 ET The ongoing conflict in the Middle East continues to raise concerns for policymakers who worry about the impact of the supply shock and high energy prices on the real economy. Producer price data and various survey results on the housing market were the main news from the U.S. this week. In Europe, industrial production data for the euro area gained attention. GDP figures out of China and the policy move by the Singapore central bank were in focus in Asia.