STOCKS FALL AFTER EPIC 8-DAY WIN STREAK: Here's What You Need To Know

The S&P 500's 8-day win streak ended today.

First the scoreboard:

Dow: 13,881, -14.0, -0.1 percent
S&P 500: 1,500, -2.7, -0.1 percent
NASDAQ: 3,156, +4.5, +0.1 percent

And now the top stories:

• The last time the S&P 500 closed positive for nine straight days was November 2004. Unfortunately, the recent win streak ended at eight.

• Machinery giant Caterpillar announced its Q4 financial results this morning, and sales and earnings were better than analysts' expectations. Management also issued earnings guidance that was right in line with expectations. The stock rallied today.

• Caterpillar also provided a detailed, quantitative forecast for the global economy including projections for interest rates and commodities prices. " While we expect some improvement in the U.S. economy, growth is expected to be relatively weak," said Caterpillar CEO Doug Oberhelman . "We believe China's economy will continue to improve, but not to the growth rates of 2010 and 2011. We also remain concerned about Europe and expect economies in that region will continue to struggle in 2013." Click Here For Caterpillar's Full Outlook >

• Durable goods orders surged 4.6 percent in December, which was much higher than the 2.0 percent growth forecasted by economists. However, nondefense capital goods shipments excluding aircraft rose 0.3 percent, missing expectations of a 0.8 percent gain.

• Pending home sales unexpectedly fell 4.3 percent in December. Economists were looking for the pending figure to remain unchanged. However, this was not due to lack of demand. Rather supplies for homes under $100k were tight, which kept homebuyers from signing on the dotted line.

• The Dallas Fed manufacturing index climbed modestly to 5.5, which was higher than what economists were expecting. Gains were led by big jumps in new orders, capacity utilization, and employment.

• Yahoo announces earnings after the closing bell. Follow the release live at Business Insider.

• Don't Miss: The Mysterious Titans Of Shipping Reveal The Truth About The Global Economy >

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