Finance

Stocks and crude oil are slipping (SPY, DJI, IXIC, USO, WTI, OIL, VDE, BNO)

Traders work on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) February 8, 2016. REUTERS/Brendan McDermidThomson ReutersTraders work on the floor of the NYSE

Stocks are trading lower on Tuesday after a few strong days on Wall Street.

Near 1:56 p.m. ET, the Dow was down 191 points, the S&P 500 was down 22 points, and the Nasdaq was down 56 points — all by more than 1%.

Home Depot shares had been up as much as 4% in early trading, leading the Dow, after the company reported strong quarterly results with its 19th straight quarter of same-store-sales growth.

The stock fell with the broader market.

Stock losses picked up a bit after a slew of mixed economic data in the morning, and as crude oil prices fell.

West Texas Intermediate crude fell as much as 5% to $31.68 per barrel following strong gains over the past two sessions, as OPEC-member commentary crisscrossed once again.

Iran’s oil ministry news agency Shana reported that the production freeze agreement put forward by Saudi Arabia, Russia, Venezuela and Qatar put “unrealistic demands” on the country. Iran is busy trying to ramp up production for export now that economic sanctions are off.

Also, Saudi Arabian oil minister Ali bin Ibrahim Al-Naimi said production cuts will not happen, although a freeze could be discussed at a possible meeting of oil producers in March.

Later this evening, the American Petroleum Institute will report weekly US inventory levels.

In economic data, the housing market continued to look solid as existing home sales unexpectedly climbed in January at the biggest annual percentage gain since July 2013, and

Home prices climbed at a slower pace in December, according to the S&P/Case-Shiller index.

And finally, we learned via the Conference Board that stock-market volatility has weighed on consumer confidence this month.

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