Stocks are lower

Investing.com

Stocks traded lower on Tuesday morning in New York.

Near 10:13 a.m. ET, the Dow was down 98 points (0.54%), the S&P 500 was down 10 points (0.49%) and the Nasdaq was down 23 points (0.50%).

Stocks surged with crude oil on Monday, lifting the indexes back above the lowest levels in a month — where they settled last week. 

Crude oil prices continued to climb early on Tuesday. West Texas Intermediate crude futures rose to as high as $48.42 per barrel, a new seven-month high. Brent crude, the international benchmark, rose to as high as $49.47. 

Oil has been supported lately by news of supply disruptions in Nigeria, which was recently dethroned by Angola as Africa's largest producer. Also, Goldman Sachs analysts said in a note Sunday that the imbalance of supply and demand is shifting towards demand faster than they expected.

In economic data, the consumer price index jumped 0.4% in April, the biggest gain since February 2013. The gasoline index surged 8.1%, although it's still down 13.8% year-on-year. 

Core CPI, which excludes food and energy costs for their volatility, rose 0.2% month-on-month and 2.1% year-on-year.

Housing starts climbed more than expected, by 3.3% to 1.172 million in April. Building permits rose 3.6% to 1.135 million, missing expectations. 

And finally, industrial production rose 0.7%, topping forecasts and coming in positive for the second time since last September. Capacity utilization was at 75.4% in April, down from 74.9% in the prior month. 

Home Depot once again surprised with its earnings, thanks to rising home prices and mild weather. The company earned $1.44 per share ($1.33 expected) and revenues of $22.76 billion ($22.32 billion expected).  

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