The US markets turned lower on Tuesday, recording their biggest decline in three weeks, following a surprise drop in durable-goods orders and disappointing earnings from Microsoft Corporation and Caterpillar Inc. On the economy front, orders for durable goods declined sharply in December, raising questions about whether businesses are really ready to ramp up investment in 2015. Durable-goods orders sank 3.4% last month, while November’s reading was marked down to a 2.1% decline from a drop of 0.9%. On the other hand, sales of new single-family homes rose sharply in December, helping sales for the year to show a modest increase from 2013. Sales of new single-family homes jumped 11.6% in December to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 481,000. Consumer confidence jumped in January to the best reading since August 2007. The consumer-confidence index rose to 102.9 from 93.1 in December.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average lost by 291.49 points or 1.65 percent to 17,387.21, the Nasdaq Composite was down by 90.26 points or 1.89 percent at 4,681.50 while, the S&P 500 dropped 27.54 points or 1.34 percent, to close at 2,029.55.
Indian ADRs closed mixed on Tuesday; Dr. Reddy’s Lab was down 1.43%, Tata Motors was down 0.78% and Infosys was down 0.55%. On the other hand, HDFC Bank was up by 0.16% and ICICI Bank was up 0.10%.