Dow slides more than 100 points as Walmart shares tank nearly 10%

BRYAN R. SMITH | AFP | Getty Images

Traders work on the floor at the closing bell of the Dow Industrial Average at the New York Stock Exchange on December 29, 2017 in New York.

“The equity markets snapped back from a deeply oversold condition last week,” Bruce Bittles, chief investment strategist at Baird, said in a note to clients. “At this juncture, the 10% decline from the January high is seen as a normal correction in an ongoing secular bull market.”

“Although the economic fundamentals suggest the correction has run its course, the technical indicators leave open the potential for a retest of the recent lows,” Bittles said. “Excessive investor optimism that was pervasive in January has been replaced with caution and skepticism but there is a lack of evidence that fear has entered the building, which is often found at a good market low.”

U.S. markets reopened Tuesday after a long holiday weekend. In the previous session, the S&P 500 ended its best week since 2013. But stocks closed off their highs Friday, as developments in the U.S. political space unfolded.

On Friday, the office of U.S. Special Counsel Robert Mueller indicted 13 Russian nations and three entities from Russia for alleged illegal interference in the 2016 presidential election.

The defendants allegedly conducted “information warfare” against the U.S. to “sow discord” into its political system through the use of fictitious personas and online platforms such as social media. The Kremlin has since said here was no significant evidence of meddling from Russia in the 2016 presidential election but provided no further information.

In corporate news, Walmart reported adjusted quarterly earnings of $1.33 per share, missing an estimate of $1.37. The company also reported a 23 percent drop in e-commerce revenue.

Meanwhile, Home Depot released quarterly results that surpassed analyst expectations, lifting the Dow component by 0.6 percent.

The Nasdaq composite bucked the downward trend in the market Tuesday, rising 0.3 percent. Shares of Amazon, Netflix and Alphabet all rose more than 1 percent, pushing the tech-heavy index higher.

—CNBC’s Dan Mangan and Mike Calia contributed to this report