Stocks Closed Sharply Lower on Earnings Concerns

U.S. stocks closed sharply lower on Tuesday after Alcoa Inc. results started earnings season off on a dour note. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 200.38 points, or 1.09%, to 18,128.66. The S&P 500 was down 26.93 points, or 1.24%, to 2,136.73. The Nasdaq Composite dropped 81.89 points, or 1.54%, to 5,246.79.

Oil futures settled lower Tuesday as a report of record-high production from OPEC in September fed a pullback in prices following a rally a day earlier. November West Texas Intermediate crude fell 56 cents, or 1.1%, to settle at $50.79 a barrel. The December contract for global crude benchmark Brent lost 73 cents, or 1.4%, to $52.41 a barrel.

A federal appeals court on Tuesday issued an across-the-board rejection of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, ruling its structure unconstitutional and setting aside a closely watched enforcement action against a mortgage lender.

Comcast Corp. is paying $2.3 million to settle an investigation by the Federal Communications Commission into whether the company wrongfully charged customers for cable TV services and equipment that they never ordered.