Mixed Finish Blunts Many ETF Gains

A robust Treasury auction revealed some investor hesitation in stocks and exchange-traded funds, many of which closed down Tuesday.

Long-term Treasury futures reached their highest prices of the day following the auction of a record $44 billion in two-year notes, which saw a bid-to-cover ratio of 3.63, much stronger than the average of 2.92 from the last six two-year auctions.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average managed a gain of 14 points after swinging back and forth throughout the session, closing at 9882. The Nasdaq was down 26 at 2116 and the S&P 500 dropped 4 to 1063.

The Conference Board reported that its consumer confidence index fell for October, a worse-than-expected decline to 47.4 The Case-Shiller home-price indexes showed U.S. home prices logged their third monthly increase in August.

The indexes showed prices in 10 major metropolitan areas fell 10.6% in August from a year earlier but rose 1.3% from July. In 20 major metropolitan areas, home prices dropped 11.3% on the year but were up 1.2% from the previous month.

The mixed finish follows two consecutive days in the red for stocks, which amounted to the Dow's first set of back-to-back triple-digit declines since June. The slump came on skepticism about a rally that has lasted seven months and pushed the Dow to its highest point of the year last week.

The Case-Shiller data showed that compared with the previous month, only Charlotte, N.C., Cleveland and Las Vegas posted declines. Month-to-month gainers were led by Minneapolis, which posted a 3.2% gain, and San Francisco, which rose 2.8%. Cleveland fared worst, falling 0.5%.

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

The iShares Barclays 20+ Year Treasury Bond fund (TLT) rose 1.4% as investors backed off equities. Another up day for oil prices pushed the United States Oil fund (USO) 1.1% higher for the day.

The recent strengthening of the dollar against the real pushed back shares of iShares MSCI Brazil Index fund (EWZ), which shed 3.0%. Eroding consumer confidence figures from the Conference board pushed shares of the SPDR S&P Retail (XRT) fund down 3.2%.