By Kate Gibson, MarketWatch
NEW YORK (MarketWatch) — U.S. stocks edged lower Tuesday as an upbeat report on the U.S. housing market failed to override concern about Europe’s debt troubles.
European Central Bank President Mario Draghi canceled his Saturday speech at the Federal Reserve’s annual symposium in Jackson Hole, Wyo., citing work ahead of the ECB’s meeting next Thursday.
The National Statistics Institute in Madrid on Tuesday reported Spain’s recession grew worse in the second quarter, with the euro member’s gross domestic product falling 0.4% from the first quarter.
Europe’s sovereign-debt crisis will cloud global financial markets for as long as 10 more years, remaining a market risk for global equity investors, according to Fred Dickson, chief investment strategist at Davidson Cos. in Lake Oswego, Ore.
“Major European banks are the primary holders of troubled European sovereign debt, estimated to be in the several hundred billion euros,” Dickson wrote in emailed research.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average DJIA -0.16% fell 19.04 points to 13,105.63.
The S&P 500 index SPX -0.13% shed 2.25 points to 1,408.19.
The Nasdaq Composite COMP -0.06% retreated 2.43 points to 3,070.76.
Decliners outran advancers on the New York Stock Exchange, where composite volume came to 274 million as of 9:55 a.m. Eastern.
The S&P/Case-Shiller index of property values in 20 cities rose 0.5% in June from the year-earlier period, the first such gain in nearly two years.
Kate Gibson is a reporter for MarketWatch, based in New York.
