U.S. stocks traded lower midway through trading, with the Dow Jones falling around 1% on Tuesday.

The Dow traded down 0.96% to 40,436.70 while the NASDAQ fell 0.33% to 16,829.42. The S&P 500 also fell, dropping, 0.44% to 5,447.01.

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Leading and Lagging SectorsConsumer discretionary shares surged by 0.6% on Tuesday.

In trading on Tuesday, energy shares fell by 1.8%.

Top Headline

The NFIB Small Business Optimism Index fell to 91.2 in August, recording the weakest reading in three months, and versus July's reading of 93.7.

Equities Trading UP                       

• BIO-key International, Inc. (NASDAQ:BKYI) shares shot up 88% to $1.95 after the company announced it was rewarded $500K in new orders from a government defense ministry.
• Shares of Mission Produce, Inc. (NASDAQ:AVO) got a boost, surging 21% to $12.90 after the company reported better-than-expected third-quarter financial results.
• Avid Bioservices, Inc. (NASDAQ:CDMO) shares were also up, gaining 16% to $10.40 following a narrower-than-expected quarterly loss.

Equities Trading DOWN

• Edgio, Inc. (NASDAQ:EGIO) shares dropped 34% to $0.81. Edgio shares tumbled on Monday after the company filed for Chapter 11 relief. The company entered into a stalking horse asset purchase agreement with Lynrock.
• Shares of Cognyte Software Ltd. (NASDAQ:CGNT) were down 12% to $6.54 following second-quarter results.
• Alimera Sciences, Inc. (NASDAQ:ALIM) was down, falling 17% to $4.63 after the company announced it filed a lawsuit against ANI Pharmaceuticals to fulfill its contractual obligation for the merger agreement.

CommoditiesIn commodity news, oil traded down 1.4% to $67.76 while gold traded up 0.1% at $2,536.00.

Silver traded down 0.2% to $28.60 on Tuesday, while copper fell 1.1% to $4.10.

Euro zone

European shares were lower today. The eurozone's STOXX 600 slipped 0.39%, Germany's DAX declined 0.73% and France's CAC 40 fell 0.15%. Spain's IBEX 35 Index fell 0.27%, while London's FTSE 100 fell 0.61%.

Regular pay in the UK, excluding bonuses, rose 5.1% year-over-year to GBP 647/week in the three months to July, while UK's unemployment rate declined to 4.1% from May to July.

Industrial production in Italy declined by 0.9% month-over-month in July compared to a 0.5% gain in June. Spain’s industrial output declined by 0.4% year-over-year in July. The annual inflation rate in Germany eased to 1.9% in August from 2.3% in the prior month.

Asia Pacific Markets

Asian markets closed mostly higher on Tuesday, with Japan's Nikkei 225 falling 0.16%, Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index gaining 0.22%, China's Shanghai Composite Index gaining 0.28% and India's BSE Sensex gaining 0.44%.

Japan's machine tool orders fell 3.5% year-over-year to JPY 110,771 million for August. China’s trade surplus widened to $91.02 billion in August from $67.81 billion in the year-ago period.

Economics

The NFIB Small Business Optimism Index fell to 91.2 in August, recording the weakest reading in three months, and versus July's reading of 93.7.

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