Wall Street slips after three-day rally

Stocks on Wall Street closed on their lows after a mixed bag of corporate earnings.

Europe also weighed on the market as hopes waned for a big solution to Europe's debt crisis.

A meeting of European Union finance ministers was cancelled. However, a scheduled summit among European leaders is still planned.

In economic news, US home prices rose modestly in August from a month earlier. It was the fifth-straight monthly increase.

Consumer confidence faded this month, with the Conference Board saying its consumer-confidence index sank to 39.8 in October from a revised 46.4 in September.

At the close (9am NZ time), the Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 207.00 points, or 1.7%, to 11,706.62, halving gains of more than 400 points over the previous three trading days.

The S&P 500 index lost 2.0% to 1229.05, with all 10 sectors falling. The technology-heavy Nasdaq Composite was down 2.3% to 2638.42.

Shares of 3M led the Dow lower, falling 6.1%, after reporting third-quarter earnings and revenue that fell short of expectations. The company also lowered its full-year outlook,

DuPont reversed earlier gains and shed 1.2% after reporting better-than-expected third-quarter earnings and revenue. It also increased its full-year earnings outlook.

Other markets: Europe down, Asia mixed
European stocks were mostly lower as investors remained cautious ahead of the European summit.

The Stoxx Europe 600 index closed down 0.7% at 240.29. The UK's FTSE 100 index fell 0.4% to 5525.54, France's CAC-40 index ended down 1.4% at 3174.29 and Germany's DAX slipped 0.1% to 6046.75.

Chinese stocks gained while most other major Asian equity markets slipped. Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index gained 1.1% to 18,968.20, much of it in the final half-hour of trading, while the Shanghai Composite Index rose 1.7% to 2409.67. India's Sensex rose 1.9% to 17,254.86.

Japan's Nikkei Stock Average lost 0.9% to 8762.31, Korea's Kospi ended down 0.5% at 1888.65 and Australia's S&P/200 index declined 0.6% to 4227.90.

Commodities: Oil, gold up
Crude oil futures hit their highest levels in three months, rising to $US94.65 a barrel, the most since early August.

But prices fell from highs after eurozone finance ministers cancelled a meeting set for Wednesday, suggesting a new setback in attempts to resolve the eurozone's debt crisis.

Light, sweet crude oil for December delivery in New York settled at US93.17 a barrel, up 2.1%, or $US1.90. ICE North Sea Brent for December was down 91USc at $US110.54 a barrel.

Gold futures settled at a one-month high. The contract for October delivery settled $US48.10, or 2.9%, higher at $US1699.60 an ounce in New York, its highest settlement since September 22. The more active December contract settled at $US1700.40.

Currencies: Yen rises to post-1945 high
The yen pushed to a new post-World War II high against the US dollar.

The euro was at $US1.3915 – after falling as low as $US1.3841 – compared with $US1.3929 late on Monday.

The US dollar traded at ¥75.95 from ¥76.10, while the euro was at ¥105.67 from ¥106.02.

The UK pound bought $US1.6003 compared with $US1.5996, while the dollar fetched 0.8797 Swiss franc from 0.8808 franc.