Higher than expected core wholesale price inflation and bigger declines in industrial production in September weighed more than bids rumors and earnings reports in New York on Tuesday, sending equities markets lower at midday. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was 0.57 percent lower to 11,912.08, while the Nasdaq Composite dropped 1.2 percent to 2,336.02 and the S&P 500 fell 0.7 percent to 1,359.91.
Both the Chicago Mercantile Exchange and the Chicago Board of Trade saw gains on news of the planned merger of the two exchanges, which will create the biggest futures and options exchange in the world. CME added 2.21 percent to $514.35, while CBOT jumped 12.82 percent to $151.76 as shareholders learned that the merger would net them $8 billion worth of CME stock.
In financial sectors, Merrill Lynch dropped 0.08 percent to $84.04 even though its third-quarter earnings were up from $1.4 billion to $1.9 billion, even without what it gained in the sale of its asset management unit. Financial services group State Street was a decline of 2.2 percent to $62.94 despite of an increase of 93 percent in the third quarter over the same period last year.
Semiconductors declined as well. Intel was 3.4 percent lower to $20.88 ahead of its earnings report, due later in the day, on a downgrade from Goldman Sachs. Meanwhile Broadcom dropped 4.83 percent to $29.33.