Stocks Begin Higher, US Vote in Focus

U.S. stocks opened moderately higher on Tuesday as Americans went to the polls to elect the country’s president.  The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 59.89 points, or 0.46%, to 13,172.33. The S&P 500 index added 4.30 points, or 0.30%, to 1,421.56. The Nasdaq Composite climbed 2.29 points, or 0.08%, to 3,001.95.

Home prices slipped in September after gaining for six months in a row as values were weighed down by cheaper distressed sales, data from CoreLogic showed on Tuesday. CoreLogic Inc’s home price index fell 0.3 percent from August. Prices were still up strongly compared with a year ago, rising 5 percent for the biggest increase since July 2006.

BMW (BMW.DE), the world’s largest premium carmaker, warned it was starting to feel the pain of a sickly European market, overshadowing strong quarterly results and a forecast record annual profit.

France’s government has promised €20 billion ($25 billion) in tax credits to businesses as part a “competitiveness pact” that it hopes will spark innovation and lower unemployment — but falls short of calls in a recent report for a “shock” to the economy.

Counting the cost of anti-Japanese protests in a territorial dispute with China, Nissan Motor Co <7201.T> cut its full-year net profit forecast by a fifth to $3.99 billion, and said it had lost share in its biggest market.