Stock Market Pivots Firmly Lower In Early Afternoon Trade Following Trump Jr. Tweets

The U.S. stock market took a decided turn lower on Tuesday around noon, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average falling by more than 100 points. The cause for the sudden jolt lower wasn't entirely clear, as stocks had been wavering between small gains and losses earlier in the session, but the move came as Donald Trump Jr. released an email exchange via Twitter related to allegations that he held meetings with individuals claiming to possess incriminating information about former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton during his father's presidential campaign against the Democratic rival. The Dow was down more than 120 points at one point, but has pared some of those losses to trade down 0.3% at 21,339. The S&P 500 index was off 0.3% at 2,420, while the Nasdaq Composite Index was trading flat Tuesday afternoon. Despite the early skittishness exhibited by the U.S. equity market, government bond moves remained muted, with the 10-year Treasury yield at 2.37% and gold futures held their ground, trading flat. Wall Street has had a tendency to be fairly resilient when it comes to worries about drama in the White House, including charges that Russian officials meddled with the 2016 U.S. election, helping President Donald Trump come into power.