NEW YORK, New York - Stocks in the U.S. were patchy and weak on Tuesday with no news to drive the market.

The U.S. dollar continued to flex its muscles, driving the euro and British pound, and their accomplices to multi-week lows.

"The banks' results weren't bad, but they weren't overwhelming," J.J. Kinahan, chief market strategist at TD Ameritrade in Chicago told Reuters on Tuesday.

"We're coming off five days in a row of being higher," he added, referring to recent record highs for the S&P 500. "It's just hard to continue that momentum."

The Dow Jones slipped to 27,335.63 by the close on Tuesday, for a loss of 23.53 points or 0.09%.

The Standard and Poor's 500 dropped 10.26 points or 0.34% to 3,004.04.

The Nasdaq Composite declined 35.39 points or 0.43% to 8,222.80.

On foreign exchange markets, around the New York close Tuesday the euro had fallen to close to 1.1200. At last call it was quoted at 1.1211.

The British pound was sharply lower at 1.2410. The Japanese yen eased to 108.28, while the Swiss franc declined to 0.9877.

The Canadian dollar was slightly weaker at 1.3075, while the Australian dollar fell to 0.7015.

The New Zealand dollar eased to 0.6704.

In overseas markets, the German Dax strengthened by 0.35%. The Paris-based CAC 40 rose 0.65%, while in London the FTSE 100 appreciated by 0.60%.

Earlier in Asia, the Nikkei 225 in Japan plummeted 150.65 points or 0.69% to 21,535.25.

China's Shanghai Composite dropped 4.57 points or 0.16% to 2,937.62.

The Australian All Ordinaries fell 10.40 points or 0.15% to 6,735.80.

In Hong Kong, the Hang Seng went against the gtrend, rising 64.74 points or 0.23% to 28,618.62.