Stocks and most exchange-traded funds lost ground Tuesday as investors digested tepid housing data that squeezed equities, despite a wave of mostly positive quarterly earnings reports.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average finished down 51 points at 10041. The Nasdaq slipped 13 to 2163 and the S&P 500 gave up 7 at 1091.

The major indexes were pressured by a larger-than-forecast monthly decline in the producer price index, a smaller-than-expected rise in housing starts and an unexpected drop in building permits.

The Commerce Department said home building rose for the third time in four months during September, reflecting higher sales this year. But the increase was smaller than expected and the government tax credit that's helped drive demand is near an end.

Housing starts climbed to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 590,000, up 0.5% from the prior month. The report also said building permits fell and August starts were revised down. Economists surveyed by Dow Jones Newswires forecast a 2.0% increase in September starts, to an annual rate of 610,000.

Building permits in September dropped 1.2% to an annual rate of 573,000. Economists had expected permits to rise by 2.8% to a rate of 596,000. August permits rose 2.8% to 580,000. Building permits are a sign of future construction.

Oil futures traded on the Nymex were down 82 cents as of 2:32 p.m. to $79.19 a barrel.

For a detailed rundown on Tuesday s trading session see our market story.

Winners

A jolt in energy prices pushed shares of the United States Natural Gas fund (UNG) up 3.0%. The iShares MSCI Hong Kong Index fund (EWH) climbed 1.6%, mirroring a rise in the Hang Seng stock index.

Losers

The iShares MSCI Brazil Index fund (EWZ) took a 3.8% tumble after Brazil passed a new law increasing taxes on securities trading, a move that also put at 3.2% dent in the Market Vectors-Brazil Small-Cap fund (BRF). The SPDR S&P Homebuilders fund (XHB) dropped 2.4% on weak housing starts data.

Tuesday s Industry Headlines

The ETFS Palladium Trust plans to launch the ETFS Physical Palladium fund, whose shares are backed by actual palladium. ETF Securities USA is the sponsor of the trust; Bank of New York Mellon is the trustee and JPMorgan Chase Bank is the custodian. It will sell shares only in one or more blocks of 50,000 shares and will not sell fractions of that amount. The palladium that backs the fund will be stored in vaults in London and Zurich.

Wednesday s Notebook

Earnings and Conference Calls
A. T. Cross, Aaron's, Affymetrix, Air Products and Chemicals, AirTran Holdings, Allegheny Technologies, Alliance Data, Alliance Fiber Optic Products, Altria Group, AMB Property, Ambassadors Group, AmeriCredit, Ameriprise Financial, Amgen, AMR, Arkansas Best, Astoria Financial, ATMI, Boeing, C.R. Bard, Citrix Systems, ClickSoftware Technologies, Cohen & Steers, Cohu, Community Trust, Conceptus, Continental Airlines, Core Laboratories, CoStar Group, Covance, Covanta Holding, Cullen/Frost Bankers, CyberOptics, Dice Holdings, DST Systems, eBay, Edwards Lifesciences, Elan, Equinix, FBR Capital Markets, Fidelity National Financial, Fidelity National Information, First Midwest Bancorp, Freeport-McMoRan Copper & Gold, Gentex, Genzyme, Graco, Hub Group, Hudson City Bancorp, Intersil, iRobot, KeyCorp, Kinder Morgan Energy Partners, Kinetic Concepts, Knight Capital Group, Knight Transportation, Lam Research, LaSalle Hotel Properties Lennox International, Lindsay, Logitech International, Mattson Technology, MB Financial, Media General, Morgan Stanley, MSC Industrial Direct, Northern Trust, Northrop Grumman NVE, OSI Pharmaceuticals, P.F. Chang's China Bistro, Penn National Gaming, Platinum Underwriters Holdings, Range Resources, Rimage, Robert Half International, St. Jude Medical, Stanley Works, TCF Financial, Terex, Tractor Supply, TriQuint Semiconductor, TrueBlue, U.S. Bancorp, VMWare, Wells Fargo, Westell Technologies

Economic Data
7:00 a.m. MBA Purchase Applications
10:30 a.m. EIA Petroleum Status Report
2:00 p.m. Beige Book

Quick Take

A look at how the industry's most popular ETFs did on Tuesday.