Tuesday's Market Wrap: Stocks Pull Back After Monday Rally

U.S. stocks pulled back on Tuesday after a rally to start the week on Monday. All three major averages closed the session with modest losses. The only sector that was positive on the day was financials, with the biggest losses coming in basic materials and utilities.

Big gainers on the session included Ritchie Bros. Auctioneers RBA, which added 24 percent, and Potash Corporation of Saskatchewan POT, which climbed almost 11 percent on the day. Losers included Abercrombie & Fitch Co. ANF, which lost more than 20 percent after disappointing earnings results, and G-III Apparel Group, Ltd. GIII, which also fell 20 percent on the day.

Major Averages

The Dow Jones Industrial Average lost 49 points, or 0.26 percent, to close at 18,454.

The S&P 500 shed 4 points, or 0.20 percent, to finish at 2,176.

The Nasdaq lost 9 points, or 0.18 percent, to close at 5,223.

Consumer Confidence

The Consumer Confidence Index for August was 101.1, which easily beat consensus expectations of 97.0, and the previous reading of 96.7.

Commodities

The commodity complex was lower on Tuesday. The Bloomberg Commodity Index fell 0.95 percent on the session.

NYMEX crude oil futures lost 1.21 percent to $46.41 while Brent contracts shed 1.64 percent and were last trading at $48.45. Natural gas registered a small 0.28 percent gain on the day to $2.88.

Precious metals also fell on Tuesday. COMEX gold futures were last down 1.02 percent to $1,313.50. The SPDR Gold Trust ETF GLD shed 1 percent to $125.04. Silver futures lost 0.95 percent to $18.68 on the day. The iShares Silver Trust ETF SLV fell 1.28 percent and closed the equity session at $17.67.

In the grains complex, corn and wheat were both lower on Tuesday. Corn futures were last down 1.56 percent to $3.1575 per bushel. Wheat contracts lost 1.20 percent to $3.9225.

Bonds

Treasury prices were lower on the day despite the decline in the stock market. At the close of equities, the iShares Barclays 20+ Year Treasury Bond ETF TLT was down 0.39 percent to $139.67.

Treasury yields were as follows on Tuesday afternoon: The yield on the 2-Year Note was 0.80 percent. The 5-Year Note was yielding 1.18 percent. The 10-Year Note was last yielding 1.57 percent while the 30-Year Bond yield was 2.23 percent.

Currencies

The U.S. Dollar rose on Tuesday. The PowerShares DB US Dollar Index Bullish ETF UUP, which tracks the performance of the greenback versus a basket of foreign currencies, climbed 0.53 percent to $24.83. The closely watched EUR/USD pair fell 0.40 percent to 1.1144 euros.

Volatility and Volume

The CBOE Volatility Index (VIX) climbed slightly on Tuesday in the wake of the market pullback. By the close of trading, the VIX was up 1.39 percent to 13.12. Despite the jump in the so-called "Fear Index," the VIX remains near 52-week low levels.

The current pattern of very light daily volumes continued on Tuesday as August has traditionally been a month when many investors are on vacation. Around 52 million shares of the SPDR S&P 500 ETF SPY trading hands versus a 3-month daily average of 89.8 million shares. Trading in the PowerShares QQQ Trust QQQ, a heavily traded instrument as it tracks the Nasdaq 100, was also below average with 17 million shares trading hands compared to a 3-month daily average of just over 21 million shares.