Stocks see mild losses on low volume ahead of key employment report due out Friday. The Dow ($INDU) fell 47.16 points to a level of 9,742.20. The S&P 500 ($SPX) lost 2.37 points to 1,060.61. The Nasdaq ($COMPQ) gave up 6.70 points to 2,124.04. Volumes were light on the session with the NYSE trading 1.18 billion shares and the Naz turning over 2.10 billion shares. Market breadth was negative by a 14-to-16 and 11-to-16 margin on the Big Board and Naz respectively.

The reason for selling Tuesday seems to be a disappointing consumer confidence report from the Conference Board. This index fell to 53.1 in September from 54.5 in August and well below estimates for a reading of 57.0. Further bad news was found within the report where those saying jobs were hard to get rose to 47.0 percent from 44.3 percent. This doesn't bode well for Friday's nonfarm payrolls data. Estimates are for nonfarm payrolls to fall by 170,000 after a decline of 216,000 in August.

Traders did get good news about home prices with the S&P Case-Shiller home price index rose 1.7 percent for the Composite 10 index. However, this data is for July and we have gotten some less than stellar housing data of late. Nonetheless, home prices have risen for three straight months as measured by the Case-Shiller survey. This news did help home builders with KB Homes (KBH) bucking the downtrend, rising 1.60 percent to $17.17.

Earnings season for the third quarter are just around the corner and this will be a key for where the market heads heading into 2010. Walgreen (WAG) reported earnings that exceeded analyst estimates, pushing the stock to a new 52-week high. The prescription drug retailer was able to beat estimates by cutting costs with same-store sales rising 2.4 percent. The stock gained 9.24 percent on the session to close at $37.35.

Nike (NKE) shares gained 1.85 percent in the regular session Tuesday, but are up another 4 percent in after-hours trading. The athletic shoe and apparel maker easily beat earnings estimates, reporting EPS of $1.04 a share compared with expectations for 97-cents. As with most companies, Nike was able to beat on cost cutting and a lower tax rate. Revenues did fall 4.2 percent and orders for goods to be delivered from now until January show a 6 percent decline.

Wednesday's session will mark the end of the third quarter with the major market indices on track for their largest percentage gains since 1998. The session will see the release of several second tier employment reports, including the ADP report, which should provide some insight to Friday's jobs report.

Jody Osborne
Senior Writer & Options Strategist
Optionetics.com ~ Your Options Education Site