Gloomy session burdened by fiscal worries

Generally speaking, US stocks closed slightly lower Tuesday as

Washington continued to wrangle over a budget plan that would avoid the year-end "fiscal cliff," reported AFP. The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed at 12,951.78, down 13.82 points (0.11 percent). The broad-market S&P 500 dipped 2.41 points (0.17 percent) to 1,407.05 while the tech-rich Nasdaq Composite fell 5.51 (0.18 percent) to 2,996.69. In comparison, the FashionUnited Top 100 Index also closed in red, yet with lighter losses (-1.81 percent) than other composite indexes.

"Equities finished the day in slightly negative territory as continued worries of the fiscal cliff dominated financial headlines and no major economic reports were released today," said Charles Schwab & Co. analysts in declarations for Associated France Press.

Meanwhile, Francesca's Holdings Corporation (FRAN) is reporting for the quarter ending October 31, 2012 on Wednesday prior to the market opening. The shoes & retail apparel company's consensus earnings per share forecast from the 13 analysts that follow the stock is 0.22 dollars, as advanced by ‘NASDAQ News’.

“This value represents a 100.00 percent increase compared to the same quarter last year. FRAN missed the consensus earnings per share in the 4th calendar quarter by -15.38 percent. The ‘days to cover’ for this stock exceeds 13 days. Zacks Investment Research reports that the 2013 Price to Earnings ratio for FRAN is 25.82 vs. an industry ratio of -285.80, implying that they will have a higher earnings growth than their competitors in the same industry,” the Wall Street publication reported Tuesday.

Also G-III Apparel Group, LTD. ( GIII ) will be reporting its results for the third quarter. According to 6 analysts that follow the stock, the consensus earnings per share forecast is 2.31 dollars. “This value represents a 6.94 percent increase compared to the same quarter last year. GIII missed the consensus earnings per share in the 1st calendar quarter by -13.79 percent. The ‘days to cover’ for this stock exceeds 12 days. Zacks Investment Research reports that the 2013 Price to Earnings ratio for GIII is 13.13 vs. an industry ratio of 16.80,” summarized ´NASDAQ´.