US stocks extend losses after housing data

US stocks extended their losses on Tuesday after July existing-home sales plummeted to the lowest level in 15 years.

The S&P 500 Index has declined 13.59 points, or 1.27 percent, to trade at 1,053.77 at 10:30 am EDT. The Dow Jones Industrial Average has dropped 112.61 points, or 1.11 percent, to trade at 10,061.80. The Nasdaq Composite has dipped 1.41 percent.

The National Association of Realtors (NAR) reported that sales of previously occupied homes plunged 27.2 percent in July, the biggest one month drop ever, to a seasonally-adjusted annual rate of 3.83 million units from a downwardly revised 5.26 million units in May.

Economists had expected existing home sales to fall to the 4.75 million units in July. Year-over-year, existing home sales fell 25.5 percent from 5.14 million in July2009. 

Total housing inventory at the end of July climbed by 2.5 percent to 3.98 million existing homes available for sale, representing a 12.5-month supply at the current sales compared to an 8.9-month supply in June.
Among the Dow30 components, Caterpillar plunged 3.11 percent, while Disney and GE declined more than 2 percent.


The euro advanced 0.32 percent to 1.2697 against the dollar and the yen advanced to a 15-year high of 83.8150 against the greenback.
Crude oil futures declined 1.92 percent and copper futures fell 1.77 percent after housing data. In precious metal sector, gold futures declined 0.07 percent and silver futures rose 1.51 percent.
European stock markets plunged after worse than expected US home sales data. Markets are currently trading lower with FTSE 100 trading down by 116.23 points, DAX30 down by 129.95 points and CAC 40 down by 93.72 points.