Stocks Holding Modest Losses After Decline Overseas - U.S. Commentary

(RTTNews) - Stocks are showing modest weakness in mid-day trading on Wall Street.

Shares dropped early in the session, pushed lower by weakness in overseas markets and general concerns about the global economy. There was a partial recovery in the mid-morning, but the rebound came with limited enthusiasm and quickly died out. Stocks have spent the past couple hours hovering off their lows, but still below the unchanged mark.

The Dow is down 114 points, the Nasdaq is lower by 46 points and the S&P 500 has fallen 20 points.

Despite overall worries about the global economy, the latest data set for the U.S. indicated slightly faster-than-expected growth in the nation's service sector.

The ISM said its non-manufacturing index climbed to 54.5 in March from 53.4 in February, with a reading above 50 indicating growth in the service sector. Economists had expected the index to inch up to 54.0.

Meanwhile, a separate report from the Commerce Department showed that the U.S. trade deficit widened by more than expected. The latest stats showed that the trade deficit widened to $47.1 billion in February from a revised $45.9 billion in January.

In overseas trading, stock markets across the Asia-Pacific region moved mostly lower during trading on Tuesday. Japan's Nikkei 225 Index plunged by 2.4 percent, while Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index tumbled by 1.6 percent.

European stocks posted notable losses on the session. Germany led the retreat with a decline of more than 2.6 percent. France was down more than 2 percent and the U.K. posted a 1 percent slide.