Stocks Opened Lower and Turned Positive

U.S. stocks opened lower and turned positive in early morning trade on Tuesday, as weak oil prices weighed on energy stocks. The Dow Jones Industrial Average lately rose 40.75 points, or 0.23%, to 18,135.58. The S&P 500 was up 4.43 points, or 0.21%, to 2,150.53. The Nasdaq Composite gained 21.35 points, or 0.41%, to 5,278.84.

Crude oil futures dropped sharply Tuesday after both Iran and Saudi Arabia played down expectations for a deal to freeze or cut oil production at the closely watched informal OPEC meeting on Wednesday. Light, sweet crude futures for delivery in November fell $1.17, or 2.5%, to $44.76 a barrel. November Brent crude fell $1.23 cents, or 2.6%, to $46.70 a barrel.

The World Trade Organization cut its forecast for global trade growth this year by more than a third on Tuesday, reflecting a slowdown in China and falling levels of imports into the United States. The new figure of 1.7 percent, down from the WTO’s previous estimate of 2.8 percent in April, marked the first time in 15 years that international commerce was expected to lag the growth of the world economy, the trade body said.

Home prices in 20 U.S. cities continued to gain at a solid pace in July, according to S&P CoreLogic Case-Shiller data released Tuesday. 20-city property values index climbed 5 percent from July 2015 (forecast was for 5.1 percent), after a 5.1 percent year-over-year rise in June.