Stocks Drop as Government Debt Deal Remains Elusive

U.S. stocks tumbled on Tuesday with trading continued to be driven by the ongoing impasse over the debt ceiling in Washington, which overshadowed some key corporate earnings. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 133.25 points, or 0.87%, at 15,168.01. The S&P 500 index slid 12.08 points, or 0.71%, to 1,698.06. The Nasdaq Composite dropped 21.26 points, or 0.56%, to 3,794.01.

House GOP leaders scrambled Tuesday to forge a plan to counter an emerging bipartisan
Senate deal to reopen the government and forestall a default on U.S. obligations. But the
effort fell into disarray amid grumbling by party conservatives and it was unclear whether
GOP leaders could keep it afloat.

Intel Corp. surprised investors with better-than-expected earnings for the third quarter
on Tuesday afternoon. For the quarter ended Sept. 28, Intel reported net income of $2.95
billion, or 58 cents per share, compared with net income of $2.97 billion, or 58 cents per
share, for the same period last year. Revenue was largely flat at $13.5 billion.

Yahoo Inc. (YHOO) on Tuesday reported a third-quarter net income of $296.66 million, or 28 cents a share, compared with a profit of $3.16 billion, or $2.64 a share for the year-
earlier period. Adjusted revenue, minus traffic acquisition costs, was $1.08 billion, down
from $1.09 billion for the same quarter the previous year.

More than half of low-wage workers employed by the largest U.S. fast-food restaurants earn
so little that they must rely on public assistance to get by, according to a study released on Tuesday. This ends up costing U.S. taxpayers billions of dollars a year, the study said.