Wobbly Start for Stocks Tuesday

NEW YORK (AP) -- U.S. stocks are mostly lower Tuesday morning as internet companies and retailers slip. Stitch Fix, an online clothing company, plunged after its revenue and user totals fell short of analyst forecasts, and Pepsi is falling after it said the strong dollar will hurt its results. Mining companies are rising as the prices of gold and other metals increase.

KEEPING SCORE: The S&P 500 index slipped 4 points, or 0.1 percent, to 2,920 as of 10:47 a.m. Eastern time. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 32 points, or 0.1 percent, to 26,683. The Nasdaq composite lost 12 points, or 0.1 percent, to 8,025. The Russell 2000 index of smaller-company stocks fell 9 points, or 0.6 percent, to 1,663. Three stocks fell for every two that rose on the New York Stock Exchange.

After the U.S. and Canada said they agreed to a new trade deal, the S&P 500 was on track for a big gain Monday, but those faded and the index finished with a gain of just 0.4 percent. Smaller companies wound up with their worst loss since late June.

RIPPED STITCHING: Stitch Fix's revenue and active client totals fell short of Wall Street's targets, and the stock plummeted 31 percent $30.83. Stitch Fix had almost tripled since its IPO in November.

Elsewhere among internet companies, Facebook lost another 1.7 percent to $159.73 and TripAdvisor fell 1.7 percent to $50.21. Among retailers, Under Armour fell 1.5 percent to $20.83. Amazon rose 0.3 percent to $2,009.98 after the company said it will raise its minimum wage for U.S. workers to $15 an hour in November.

FLAT SODA: Pepsi fell 1.2 percent to $109.42 after it said the stronger dollar will have a bigger effect on its earnings this year. The company is now forecasting a profit of about $5.65 per share in 2018, down from an earlier estimate of $5.70 a share.

ITALY'S SPENDING: Italy's leaders refused to budge from new spending plans that have been spooking investors, pushing the eurozone's third-largest economy on a collision course with its EU partners. Deputy Prime Minister Luigi Di Maio said Tuesday that the government won't change its plan to increase its deficit to 2.4 percent of GDP. Eurozone say that would skirt the rules of good fiscal housekeeping shared by the 19 nations using the euro currency.

Italy's FTSE MIB fell 0.2 percent, extending a string of losses since last week. Italian government bond prices continued to fall, a sign investors are concerned about the country's debts. Germany's DAX lost 0.6 percent and the CAC 40 in France dropped 0.6 percent. Britain's FTSE 100 fell 0.2 percent.

Separately, the credit ratings agency Moody's warned that Europe remains highly vulnerable to another economic downturn despite all its fire-fighting efforts over the past few years.

COMMODITIES: Oil prices remained near four-year highs. Benchmark U.S. crude added 0.2 percent to $75.42 in New York. Brent crude, used to price international oils, was unchanged at $84.97 per barrel in London.

Gold jumped 1.2 percent to $1,205.80 an ounce and copper gained 2.1 percent to $2.85 a pound.

CURRENCIES: The dollar fell to 113.73 yen from 113.99 yen. The euro fell to $1.1536 from $1.1575.

BONDS: Bond prices edged higher. The yield on the 10-year Treasury note fell to 3.05 percent from 3.08 percent.

ASIA: Hong Kong's Hang Seng tumbled 2.4 percent after it reopened following a national holiday. South Korea's Kospi lost 1.3 percent and the benchmark Nikkei 225 in Tokyo added 0.1 percent.

(BE)