US stocks fell as investors weighed the latest mixed economic data against a backdrop of growing concern over a slowdown with the Federal Reserve on the path to hiking interest rates.
Reports Tuesday showed a bigger-than-expected drop in US home construction, while production at US factories increased in July for the first time in three months. Reports Monday of a sharp drop in New York state manufacturing along with the longest streak of declines since 2007 in homebuilder sentiment, sparked short-lived optimism in the equity markets that the Fed may slow interest-rate hikes.