Stocks dragged down by oil and Alcoa

NEW YORK (CNNMoney) — U.S. stocks remained under pressure Tuesday afternoon, as a 3% drop in oil prices sparked a sell-off in energy stocks and Alcoa continued to weigh down the Dow.

Investors were also on edge after Japanese officials raised the threat level at the Fukushima nuclear plant to the same as Chernobyl.

“Some people wanted to forget the nuclear threat in Japan, but it popped back up and worsened overnight,” said Joe Saluzzi, co-head of equity trading at Themis Trading. “There are a lot of headwinds in the market, and on a day like today, investors are waking up and taking notice of all of them.”

The Dow Jones industrial average (INDU) dropped 91 points, or 0.7%, dragged down by a more than 6% drop in Alcoa (AA, Fortune 500)’s stock. The aluminum giant reported disappointing sales late Monday.

“Investors want to see better revenues, margins and are interested in company guidance,” said Saluzzi. Alcoa didn’t deliver, making investors worried about how rising input and commodity prices will impact other corporate earnings.

Energy companies also weighed on markets, as oil prices retreated more than 3% to $106.25 a barrel following a Goldman Sachs forecast for a $20-a-barrel drop in crude prices this spring. Chevron (CVX, Fortune 500) and Exxon Mobil (XOM, Fortune 500) were big laggards on the Dow.

Pioneer Natural Resources (PXD), Nabors Industries (NBR), Denbury Resources (DNR), Range Resources (RRC) and National Oilwell Varco (NOV, Fortune 500) pressured the S&P 500 (SPX), which slipped 7 points, or 0.5%.

The tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite (COMP) lost 21 points, or 0.8%, as chipmakers such as Broadcom (BRCM, Fortune 500) and Micron Technology (MU, Fortune 500) lost ground amid global growth concerns.

On Monday, U.S. stocks gave up an early advance and closed little changed, as investors look toward corporate reports due throughout the week.

Companies: Cisco Systems announced that it was taking a restructuring charge of $300 million, as it prepared to reduce its staff by 550 workers. Cisco (CSCO, Fortune 500) shares were down less than 0.1%.

Budget battles: Early Tuesday, lawmakers finally revealed the specific spending cuts that make up the budget plan signed last week.

The 2011 budget cuts will slash $40 billion — cutting back on a wide range of programs and services including high-speed rail, emergency first responders and the National Endowment for the Arts.

In the afternoon, the Treasury Department will release its latest tally on the federal deficit. Economists expect the report to show the deficit fell much deeper into the red, falling $189 billion in March alone — more than twice the $65.4 billion in debt the government racked up in March last year

Economy: The Commerce Department released data on the U.S. trade balance for February, showing that the deficit narrowed to $45.8 billion, the gap was slightly more than expected.

Economists surveyed by Briefing.com expected the report to show the trade deficit narrowed slightly to $45.7 billion, down from $46.3 billion in January.

On Sunday, China reported a small surplus for March, but revealed a larger than $1 billion trade deficit for the first quarter. The U.S. data lags a month behind the Chinese report.

World markets: Asian markets sold-off after the Japanese government bumped up the accident at the to a level on par with the Chernobyl disaster in 1986.

The Hang Seng in Hong Kong fell 1.3% and Japan’s Nikkei tumbled 1.7%. The Shanghai Composite edged lower 0.1%.

European stocks fell Tuesday. Britain’s FTSE 100, the DAX in Germany and France’s CAC 40 all slid about 1.5%.

Currencies and commodities: The dollar rose against the British pound, but fell against the euro and the Japanese yen.

Gold futures for June delivery fell $14.50 to settle at $1,453.60 an ounce.

Bonds: The price on the benchmark 10-year U.S. Treasury rose, pushing the yield down to 3.50% from 3.57% late Monday. 

First Published: April 12, 2011: 9:44 AM ET