Qa'dah 12, 1431, Oct 20, 2010, SPA -- Stocks finished lower on Tuesday, as investors received mixed data on housing and corporate results. A reading on September housing starts-the number of new U.S. homes being built-were higher than expected, although permits for future home building fell. The U.S. Census Bureau reported that housing starts rose in September to an annual rate of 610,000. Building permits rose over five percent to an annual rate of 598,000 in September, but were less than the 565,000 expected. In company news, Bank of America's stock fell 2.7 percent after a Bloomberg news report said that the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, PIMCO, and BlackRock are seeking to force Bank of America to buy back about $47 billion in bad mortgages that were packaged by Countrywide Financial Corporation. Bank of America reported a third-quarter loss of $7.3 billion. Goldman Sachs reported a 40 percent fall in profit to $1.9 billion for the third quarter, citing “challenging” market conditions. The financial firm exceeded Wall Street's lowered estimates and reported revenue of $8.9 billion, a mild increase from the year-earlier quarter. Intel announced Tuesday that it is investing up to $8 billion in microchip manufacturing plants, creating up to 1,000 permanent high-technology jobs in Arizona and Oregon. Shares were up 0.2 percent. The U.S. dollar rose against the euro and the yen. Light sweet crude oil for November delivery fell $3.08 to $80 a barrel. Gold futures fell $38.80 to $1,333.30 an ounce. The Dow Jones industrial average fell 165.07, or 1.5 percent, to 10,978.62. The broader Standard & Poor's 500 index fell 18.81, or 1.6 percent, to 1,165.90. The technology-heavy Nasdaq composite index fell 43.71, or 1.8 percent, to 2,436.95.
