Tuesday's early afternoon trade: stocks sag as commodity shares, utilities weigh

US stocks slipped on Tuesday as investor caution took hold on the day before the Federal Reserve chairman's congressional testimony, while losses in commodity shares and utilities weighed on major indexes. After rising for eight straight sessions, the S&P 500 fell in midday trading. Nine of the 10 S&P 500 industry sector indexes declined.
Energy and material shares ranked among the day's worst performers, with Marathon Petroleum falling 5.2 percent to $69.32 and Alcoa sliding 1.1 percent to $8.08. Financial stocks, which started the day as outperformers, also dropped despite strong earnings from Goldman Sachs. The S&P financial sector index fell 0.6 percent.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 62.20 points, or 0.40 percent, at 15,422.06. The Standard & Poor's 500 Index lost 9.94 points, or 0.59 percent, at 1,672.56, and the Nasdaq Composite Index fell 15.34 points, or 0.43 percent, at 3,592.16. Johnson & Johnson shares dipped 0.2 percent to $90.26 after the Dow component reported higher-than-expected second-quarter earnings.