Perhaps it was time to take a step back. With little impactful economic news hitting the wires today, markets cooled from a red-hot start to the year on Monday. If anything, a slight slowdown in December housing numbers may have even restored a hint of bearishness to Wall Street. That said, by day's end the Dow Jones Industrial Average (^DJI 0.18%) had fallen just 14 points, or 0.10%, to 13,881.
While the real estate sector dealt with less than spectacular data, manufacturing was a different story. Industrial mainstays got a boost today as December durable goods orders rose 4.6%. Caterpillar (CAT +2.13%) investors happily bid the stock 2% higher, as the positive indicator combined with better-than-expected earnings results to paint a pleasant picture of what's to come. Caterpillar was the Dow's biggest gainer on Monday.
Alternatively, Alcoa (AA +0.00%) was the worst performer in the blue-chip index, sliding 1.4% as materials stocks declined. W?ith shares having already advanced nearly 6% in 2013, investors worry that the market may be getting ahead of itself from a valuation perspective. Nothing overwhelmingly negative was revealed about the aluminum business in particular today; Alcoa was just one of 18 blue chips to sell off to start the week.
Shares of 3-D printing pioneer 3D Systems (DDD +1.47%) suffered a precipitous drop Monday, falling 13.9%. Here too, reasons for the fall were not outwardly evident, but the drop was likely due to growing concerns that investors have placed too much of a premium on the high-growth 3-D printing industry. Shares in competing company Stratasys also tumbled about 10% today.
Another high-growth business, beverage newcomer SodaStream (SODA +0.00%) fell 4.3% today. The stock, trading near 52-week highs after a run-up of about 40% in the past few months, worries some that there isn't much room left for further gains. Still, with no debt and a promising business model, SodaStream might not be in as dire straits as some on Wall Street believe.
