Wall Street Skittish Tuesday As Focus Turns To Jobs

(RTTNews) - Stocks settled lower Tuesday, as tepid economic data raised concerns about the pace of the U.S. recovery. Markets were jittery on the final day of the third quarter, ahead of Friday's all-important monthly jobs report for September.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 28.32 points, or 0.2 percent, to 17,042.90. The index was ahead 1.3 percent for the quarter.

The S&P 500 declined 5.48 points, or 0.3 percent, to 1,972.33 with energy stocks struggling as U.S. crude oil futures plunged. The S&P 500 was up 0.6 percent for the quarter.

The Nasdaq shed 12.46 points, or 0.3 percent, to 4,493.39, leaving it up 1.9 percent for the quarter.

U.S. home prices were weaker than expected in July. The S&P/Case-Shiller 20-city composite index was up only 0.6 percent compared to June. Analysts expected the index would rise by 1.1 percent on a non-seasonally adjusted basis in July.

In other economic news, Chicago-area manufacturing activity continued to expand in September, albeit at a slower pace than the previous month. According to a report from the Institute for Supply Management - Chicago, the Chicago PMI decreased 3.8 points to 60.5 in September, falling slightly short of expectations for a reading of 61.

Meanwhile, U.S. consumer confidence expectedly fell from 7-year highs in September amid concerns about the outlook for employment, the Conference Board reported Tuesday.

After rising four consecutive months, the Conference Board's Consumer Confidence Index declined to 86.0 in September, down from an upwardly revised reading of 93.4 in August.

Turning to corporate news, e-commerce giant eBay Inc. (EBAY) said its Board of Directors has approved a plan to separate its eBay and PayPal businesses into independent publicly traded companies in 2015. The move follows significant lobbying by outspoken investor Carl Icahn. Shares were up 7.5 percent.

In other news, healthcare giant Johnson & Johnson (JNJ) announced a definitive agreement to acquire privately-held clinical stage biopharmaceutical company Alios BioPharma, Inc. The purchase price is about $1.75 billion in cash. JNJ shares were up fractionally.