STOCKS FALL: Here's What You Need To Know

After setting four straight all-time closing highs, stocks pulled back a bit.

First, the scoreboard:

• Dow: 15,467.6, +75.4, +0.4%
• S&P 500: 1,754.6, +10.0, +0.5%
• NASDAQ: 3,929.5, +9.5, +0.2%

And now the top stories:

• Caterpillar, one of the best bellwethers of global economic activity, announced weak Q3 financial results and it slashed its full-year outlook for revenue and profits. "From an economic standpoint, the company expects better world growth in 2014," said CEO Doug Oberhelman. "However, significant risks and uncertainties remain that could temper global economic growth. The direction of U.S. fiscal and monetary policy remains uncertain; Eurozone economies are far from healthy and China continues to transition to a more consumer-demand led economy." CAT shares fell 6%, dragging the Dow Jones Industrial Average.
• Boeing, however, had a very strong Q3. "Despite the uncertainty of the U.S. defense market, overall our customer-focused business strategies and disciplined execution on our programs are producing the results we expect, and our strong year-to-date performance and positive outlook allow us to increase our 2013 guidance for earnings and operating cash flow," said CEO Jim McNerney. BA shares climbed 5%.
• According to FHFA, home prices climbed by just 0.3% in August, which was much weaker than the 0.8% gain expected by economists. From FHFA: "For the nine census divisions, seasonally adjusted monthly price changes from July to August ranged from -0.5 percent in the South Atlantic division to +1.3 percent in the Mountain division, while the 12-month changes ranged from +4.0 percent in the Middle Atlantic division to +18.2 percent in the Pacific division."
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