Trader's Highlight

DJI-NEW YORK, July 12 (Reuters) - U.S. stocks closed lower for their third day in a row on Tuesday as Europe's fiscal woes and a weak start to tech earnings gave investors little reason to buy following equities' worst day in a month.

The Dow Jones industrial average .DJI fell 58.88 points, or 0.47 percent, to end unofficially at 12,446.88. The Standard & Poor's 500 Index .SPX slipped 5.85 points, or 0.44 percent, to finish unofficially at 1,313.64. The Nasdaq Composite Index .IXIC lost 20.71 points, or 0.74 percent, to close unofficially at 2,781.91.

NYMEX-NEW YORK, July 12 (Reuters) - U.S. crude futures pared gains in post-settlement trading on Tuesday after the American Petroleum Institute reported a surprise increase of 2.3 million barrrels in domestic crude inventories last week.

The report came after U.S. crude futures settled higher, snapping two days of losses.
Traders had expected that weekly inventory reports would show a stock draw. Analysts polled by Reuters had expected the data to show crude stockpiles fell by 1.8 million barrels.

On the New York Mercantile Exchange, August crude CLQ1 was up $1.48, or 1.56 percent at $96.63 a barrel at 5:02 p.m. EDT (2102 GMT). It had settled at $97.43, gaining $2.28, or 2.4 percent, after trading between $93.55 and $97.50.

CBOT-SOYBEANS-Soybean futures at the Chicago Board of Trade closed higher, led by spillover strength from corn and crude oil, traders said.

Concerns about forecasts for hot weather in the U.S. Midwest crop belt added support.

FCPO-KUALA LUMPUR, July 12 (Reuters) - Malaysian palm oil futures fell 1.3 percent on Tuesday, trailing weaker overseas equity and commodity markets, as worries over euro zone debt's crisis triggered a sell-off.

Oil, copper and grains markets tumbled on Monday as worry that the euro zone debt crisis could spill over into Italy bumped the dollar up against the euro, hurting prices of dollar-denominated commodities. Palm oil exports are priced in U.S. dollars.

The benchmark September crude palm oil contract KPOc3 on Bursa Malaysia Derivatives settled down 39 ringgit to 3,034 ringgit ($1,008) per tonne.

Overall traded volume stood 26,227 lots 25 tonnes, slightly above the usual 25,000 lots.

REGIONAL EQUITIES-BANGKOK, July 12 (Reuters) - Southeast Asian stock markets continued to slide on Tuesday as fears that the euro zone debt crisis could spread dampened appetite for global risk assets while lower oil prices prompted selling in resource and commodities shares.

Indonesia's main share index .JKSE dropped 1.4 percent after hitting a record high on Friday. Jakarta is Asia's top market this year as strong domestic consumption has bolstered its economic outlook amid global uncertainty.

Stocks in Singapore .FTSTI, Thailand .SETI and Vietnam .VNI dropped over 1 percent while Malaysia .KLSE and Philippine shares .PSI posted smaller losses.

Market players expect regional central banks to tighten policy to combat inflation as economies expand.