Wednesday's early afternoon trade: stocks fall as factory data hits materials

Wall Street was lower in volatile trading on Wednesday as weak Chinese and US factory data hit material and industrial stocks. Data showed US manufacturing growth stayed at a two-year low in September, while Chinese factory activity shrank to a 6-1/2 year low in the month. The S&P materials index was down 1.4 percent, dragged down by a 2.3 percent fall in Monsanto and a 1.2 percent fall in Dow Chemicals.
The industrial sector was lower by 0.8 percent, with United Technologies and Honeywell falling about 2 percent. Traders said volumes were lighter than usual which could exacerbate swings in the market. "Investors are sitting back and still assessing the Fed comments and looking more closely at global economic data," said Paul Nolte, portfolio manager at Kingsview Asset Management in Chicago.
At 13:07 ET (1707 GMT) the Dow Jones industrial average was down 68.08 points, or 0.42 percent, at 16,262.39 and the S&P 500 was down 4.07 points, or 0.21 percent, at 1,938.67. The Nasdaq Composite was up 0.26 points, or 0.01 percent, at 4,756.98. Eight of the 10 major S&P sectors were lower, with the technology and utilities indexes eking out small gains. Apple was up 0.5 percent and was the biggest boost to the three major indexes. Chevron was down 1.5 percent and was the biggest drag on the S&P 500. The CBOE Volatility index, popularly known as the "fear gauge", was down 0.8 percent at 22.26, but remained above its long-term average of 20.