Stocks Struggled to Edge Higher

U.S. stocks struggled to edge higher in early trading on Tuesday as US home prices dropped for sixth straight months. The Dow Jones Industrial lately rose 70.27 points, or 0.54%, to 12,997.44. The S&P 500 rose 3.80 points to 1,370.74. The Nasdaq Composite fell 1.53 points to 2,968.92.

Home prices dropped in February in most major U.S. cities for a sixth straight month, a sign that modest sales gains haven’t been enough to boost prices. The Standard & Poor’s/Case-Shiller home-price index shows that prices dropped in February from January in 16 of the 20 cities it tracks.

Proview Technology (Shenzhen), which is battling Apple Inc in a Chinese court over the iPad trademark, is the rightful owner of that mark, a senior official with the State Administration for Industry and Commerce (SAIC) said on Tuesday.

United States Steel Corp. said Tuesday its loss widened in the first quarter as it took a $399 million charge for the sale of its Serbian manufacturing plant. The Pittsburgh manufacturing giant lost $219 million, or $1.52 per share, for the first three months of the year. That compares with a loss of $86 million, or 60 cents per share, a year ago. Revenue rose 6.3 percent to $5.17 billion.