Stocks edged lower on Tuesday as a drop below $80 a barrel in oil hurt energy shares, offsetting optimism about further interest rate cuts fueled by the latest disappointing news on housing.

The Dow Jones industrial average was down 21.62 points, or 0.15 percent, at 14,065.93. The Standard & Poor’s 500 Index was down 2.77 points, or 0.18 percent, at 1,544.27. The Nasdaq Composite Index was down 2.40 points, or 0.09 percent, at 2,738.59.

Shares of Exxon Mobil Corp () fell 2.1 percent to $91.97, leading declines in the S&P 500 index.

The National Association of Realtors said its Pending Home Sales Index in August fell to the lowest reading since records began in January 2001.

“The only major interpretation you can take out of this is that the market is focusing on further rate cuts,” said Eric Kuby, chief investment officer at North Star Investment Management Corp. in Chicago.

Shares of rate-sensitive financial companies rose, including Bank of America Corp. (), up 1.8 percent at $51.55. The Dow Jones home builder index was up 5.6 percent.

U.S. crude oil fell 68 cents to $79.56. While the lower oil prices weighs on energy shares, it is viewed as a positive for the overall market because it means lower energy expenses.

Shares of handheld computer maker Palm Inc () were down 4.5 percent at $15.28, a day after the company reported a net loss for the first quarter on Monday.

Despite profit warnings from some of the world’s largest banks on Monday, traders sent the Dow industrials to an all-time high in the prior session in the belief financial institutions were aggressively putting behind them subprime mortgage and other credit-related problems.

Homebuyers contributed a record 6.4bn in stamp duty to government coffers last year, according to figures from Halifax.

Revenues from this tax were 40% more than in 2005-2006, as soaring property prices have seen the number of buyers paying it rise dramatically.

About 5.1bn came from tax on homes worth more than 250,000, more than triple the 1.6bn paid five years ago, as rising house prices pushed more homes into the higher bands.

Unsurprisingly, the majority of stamp duty is paid on property sales in London, the south-east and the east, where house prices are higher, accounting for 73% of the annual revenue. Londoners alone paid 1.7bn in the tax last year.

Buyers pay stamp duty at 1% of the sale price on properties worth between 125,000 and 250,000, rising to 3% on those worth between 250,000 and 500,000, with 4% charged on homes over this sum.

One in four properties in the UK is now valued at more than 250,000, said Halifax, the threshold at which the 3% rate starts, and around 4% of homes are worth more than 500,000.

But if stamp duty thresholds had increased at the same rate as property prices, homes would have to be worth almost 1.46m before buyers paid stamp duty at the highest rate. The 3% band would apply to homes worth 739,000 or more.

Martin Ellis, chief economist at Halifax, said: “The revenue generated from stamp duty on property purchases has soared as governments of both political parties have failed to link thresholds to house price inflation.

“We call on the government to raise all the stamp duty thresholds to reflect the increase in house prices over the past decade and to commit to doing so in the future.”

A spokesman for the Treasury said the 1% band was increased from 60,000 to 120,000 in March 2005, and then raised again by a further 5,000 in March last year.

The elite armed police team who shot Jean Charles de Menezes were told to use “unusual tactics” to confront a “deadly and determined” suicide bomber, a jury heard today.

Officers were issued with special ammunition designed to kill more quickly and were warned that the suspect was “up for it” the Old Bailey was told.

The team leader, identified only as “Ralph”, understood the order to use tactics - which had never before been deployed - meant firing at a suspect point blank in the head.

The Metropolitan Police is on trial over alleged health and safety failures leading up to De Menezes’s death in July 22, 2005. The Brazilian electrician was shot seven times in the head after police mistook him for a suicide bomber following the failed attacks a day earlier in London. The Met denies the charges.

Clare Montgomery, QC, prosecuting, said today the firearms team were briefed at 7am on July 22, two hours after a surveillance team arrived at an address in Scotia Road, south London, which had been connected with attempted suicide bomber Hussain Osman.

“As a result of the briefing Ralph had no doubt that there was a real likelihood of he or another firearms officer having to deal with a deadly and determined suicidal bomber,” she said.

But the briefing was “wrong in crucial details” because the officers were mistakenly told people had been stopped leaving the address and had been eliminated from police inquires.

When the officers followed the bus De Menezes was travelling on, Ralph said he “received confirmation that Jean Charles was definitely ‘our man’ and that he was nervous”, Ms Montgomery told the court.

“He had no doubt that they were dealing with a suicide bomber and that he may have to shoot him dead.”

Ms Montgomery said if the officers believed him to be a suicide bomber he should not have been allowed to board a tube train.

“By letting a man who was thought to be a suicide bomber get on to public transport and head towards a tube station the police were creating a situation where there was a real probability that in order to stop him safely they were going to have to shoot him,” she said.

But the team leader only arrived on the platform at Stockwell station in south London as tube passengers were fleeing in “panic and distress” after shots were fired. He then went to examine De Menezes’s body to check he was dead.

Another senior firearms officer, “Terry”, told how he went into the station behind one of the marksmen who shot the innocent man dead, the court heard.

Ms Montgomery said: “He was aware of a struggle taking place. Shots were fired, there was a pause, then the shooting resumed.

“After the carriage had been cleared he was asked if colleagues could come forward with first aid.

“He declined this, asking for explosives officers to check the body of Jean Charles first, and they quickly established he was not carrying an explosive device.”

However, Ronald Thwaites QC, defending, said the case was based on a misconception of unique circumstances under which police had to operate. He said: “The prosecution do not appear to understand how the police organise themselves, how they conduct major operations, or how they work.”

Mr Thwaites warned a conviction “may have an impact on the way police everywhere in this country carry out their work in future”.

“You may view it as a test case.”

He added there was no suggestion from either prosecution or defence that the Metropolitan police commissioner Sir Ian Blair, or the two firearms officers who pulled the trigger, were at fault.

Mr Thwaites also pointed out that prosecutors had not managed to find enough evidence to charge anyone with murder or manslaughter and questioned whether a case under health and safety law should have been brought at all.

The trial continues.