GeiserCorp

Stocks continue to see significant weakness in late morning trading on Tuesday after moving sharply lower earlier in the session. While the major averages have moved off their worst levels of the day, they remain firmly in negative territory.

The weakness on Wall Street reflects renewed concerns about the situation in Europe after finance ministers canceled a Wednesday meeting. While European leaders still plan to hold their highly-anticipated summit, the reaction to the finance minister news reflects the continued focus on Europe.

The pullback by the markets also reflects disappointing earnings news from diversified manufacturer 3M Co. (MMM) as well as a report from the Conference Board showing an unexpected deterioration in consumer confidence in the month of October. The Conference Board's Consumer Confidence Index fell sharply in October, falling from an upwardly revised 46.3 (from 45.4) in September to 39.8.

Brokerage, airline, natural gas and housing stocks are also under pressure, giving back some ground after trending higher in recent weeks.

While most of the other major sectors have also moved to the downside, gold stocks have shown a strong upward move amid a notable increase by the price of the precious metal.

European markets are out of step with each other today, with the German and UK markets firmer, while France, Italy, Spain and Switzerland take the low road, as markets wait for the next chapter of the Eurozone debt crisis management story.

In Paris, the CAC down 10 at 3,210 while in Madrid the IBEX is off 19 points at 8,938. The Swiss Market index is down 26 at 5,763 while in Milan the MIB is 42 points lower at 16,190.

A major reason for the CAC's decline is the reaction to chip-maker ST Microelectronics' third quarter trading update. Profits were down 64% from a year earlier at $71m, on sales that fell 4.9% from the year before to $2.44bn. Worst still, the company said it had seen a further falling off in the semi-conductor market in October.

In Frankfurt the strength of banks and car makers is contributing to a 49 point gain on the DAX at 6,104. The GFK consumer confidence index reading for November is also helping sentiment; the index rose to 5.3, up from 5.2 in October and ahead of expectations of a reading of 5.2.

German Deutsche Bank beat market expectations with its third quarter figures. Net income of €725m was more than double the €343m the market had forecast, and compared favourably with a loss of €1.21bn in the corresponding quarter of last year, when the company significant wrote down the value of its Deutsche Postbank acquisition.

Across the border in Switzerland, accident-prone bank UBS saw its third quarter post-tax profits decline 39% year-on-year to €1.02bn, but the fall was much less than expected, thanks to an accounting gain of €1.77bn, as its credit spreads widened. The market had pencilled in a net income figure of €318m.