U.S. stocks sold off Tuesday on comments of "little progress" from Senator Reid regarding the fiscal cliff. While a relatively superficial catalyst markets were prone for a pullback after a quick move up the past week and a half, and this was as good a reason as any. The S&P 500 dropped 0.5% and the NASDAQ 0.3%. In economic news:

• The Case-Shiller 20-city index showed that home prices jumped 3.6% in the third quarter, the biggest increase since the second quarter of 2010. Analysts had predicted a 3.1% increase.
• The Conference Board said its consumer confidence index rose to 73.7 in November from 73.1 in October. That’s above the 72.2 level forecast and the best level since February 2008.
• Durable goods orders growth was flat in October, which was better than the 0.7% decline expected by economists. Orders excluding transportation jumped 1.5%, which was ahead of expectations.

Oil dropped 56 cents to $87.18 a barrel. Gold fell $7.30 to $1,742.30 an ounce while silver fell $0.156 to $33.98.

Britain's FTSE 100 gained 0.2%, and Germany's DAX added 0.55%. France's CAC 40 was fractionally higher.

The Shanghai Composite lost 1.3% while Japan's Nikkei rose 0.4%.