U.S. Stocks Weighed by Slovakia Vote

U.S. stocks are mixed Tuesday morning as investors wait for the result of a Slovak vote on the Eurozone bailout fund expansion.

The S&P 500 Index is down 1.98 points, or 0.17 percent, to trade at 1,192.91 at 11:23 a.m. ET. The Dow Jones Industrial Average is down 33.61 points, or 0.29 percent, to trade at 11,399.57. The Nasdaq Composite is up 0.30 percent.

Recently battered financials led, with Citigroup (NYSE:C) up 1.93 percent and Morgan Stanley (NYSE:MS) up 1.37 percent.

Tech-giant Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) is up 2.49 percent on the strength of iPhone 4S sales.

Basic materials lagged, however, with Freeport-McMoRan (NYSE:FCX) down 1.89 percent and Newmont Mining (NYSE:NEM) down 1.75 percent.

Reuters reported Tuesday morning that inspectors from the European Union, IMF, and ECB said Greece should receive a tranche of 8 billion euros in early November, pending approval from the IMF and Eurozone finance ministers.

Investors, however, are still weighed by uncertainty from Slovakia.

Slovakia is currently the only Eurozone member to not approve a proposed expansion of the Eurozone bailout fund EFSF. Opposing Slovak politicians protest it is unfair that the EFSF bailout fund will aid profligate countries like Greece, which is richer than Slovakia, at the expense of Slovakia.

Slovak Prime Minister Iveta Radicova, however, has vowed to push through the EFSF expansion, possibly through a deal with an opposition party.