While you were sleeping: UPDATED US stocks fall after Brussels bombings

Financial markets were only slightly affected overnight by the latest Islamic terrorist bombings in Brussels.

Travel-rated and leisure stocks were worst affected and on Wall Street the Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped as much as 83 points.

But at the close, the Dow had lost just 41.30 points, or 0.2%, to finish at 17,582.57. The Standard & Poor's 500 Index lost 0.1% to 2049.80 while the Nasdaq Composite Index gained 0.3% to 4821.66.

Delta Air Lines shares fell 1.5%, while American Airlines Group dropped 1.6%. Cruise operator Royal Caribbean Cruises lost 2.9%, while competitor Carnival fell 2.1%.

In Europe, shares in Air France-KLM fell 4%, and Thomas Cook Group dropped 4.3%.

Oil prices were little changed, removing a key impetus for the recent sharp rally in energy-company shares.

US crude oil fell 0.2% to $US41.45 a barrel in a choppy session. An index of energy companies in the S&P 500 also declined 0.2%.

Gold rose 0.4% to $US1248.20 an ounce while the yield on 10-year US Treasurys rose to 1.935% from 1.921% on Monday as prices fell.

Market resilient to attacks
"The market appears to be more resilient than you'd expect after a terrorist attack," Milwaukee-based Robert W Baird & Co institutional equity sales trader and managing director Michael Antonelli told Bloomberg.

"We're still in the negative, but I'm shocked we're not down more. When you wake up to this news, it's definitely going to put a damper on market sentiment."

The Chicago Board Options Exchange Volatility Index, or VIX which is known as Wall Street's fear gauge, last traded 0.5% higher at 13.86.

"The market may be getting desensitised to this kind of violence," Scott Brown, chief economist at Raymond James in St. Petersburg, Florida, told Reuters.

The dollar index, which measures the greenback against a basket of six major currencies, last traded 0.4% higher.

Meanwhile, shares of Dean Foods tumbled, trading 10.6% lower by midday in New York, on concern about its sales outlook as Wal-Mart Stores, its largest client, plans to build a milk-processing plant.

Wal-Mart's "decision to in-source milk processing is clearly an unfavourable development" for Dean, given that the retailer made up 16% of 2015 sales, says Matthew Grainger, a New York-based analyst for Morgan Stanley.

In Europe, the benchmark Stoxx Index ended the day with a 0.2% decline from the previous close. Earlier in the session it dropped as much as 1.6%, following the attacks at Brussels’ airport and on the metro system. 

The UK's FTSE 100 eked out a 0.1% rise, as did France's CAC 40, while Germany's DAX added 0.4%.

(BusinessDesk)