NEW YORK (CNN/Money) - The market looked to hug the flat line Tuesday morning, as traders hung back to get a clearer sense of how the war with Iraq was proceeding.

Stock index futures had already seen their share of ups and downs as disparate pieces of news came in. British troops encountering tough resistance in Basra? Sell! A U.S. marine convoy crosses the Euphrates? Buy!

"Nobody can figure out what's going to happen with the market -- they're all guessing," said Tony Dwyer, chief market strategist at Kirlin Securities. "Let's say CNN or Fox or MSNBC brings up a picture of a GI in a bad situation. The market takes a dip. Is that a fundamental or a technical move? No, it's a war-driven, live-video stream move, which means it's totally unpredictable."

After Monday's pullback, many investors may opt to hang back from the market. The Dow Jones industrial average, coming off its best week in 20 years, and Nasdaq composite index each lost more than 3.6 percent as traders saw that their earlier enthusiasm for a war without hitches was overstated. The drop served as a harsh reminder of how levered the market is to the war, and of how trying to second guess how the war will proceed is a mug's game. Investing into the teeth of a risky market can bring huge rewards -- but the risk is still there.

Asian stocks ended lower Tuesday. Tokyo's Nikkei index, which was the outlier in Monday's global selloff, fell 2.3 percent. The South Korean Kospi fell 2.6 percent and Hong Kong's Hang Seng dropped 0.5 percent.

European markets were mixed. London's FTSE was down 0.9 percent, the Paris CAC was off 0.5 percent, but Frankfurt's Dax was up 0.1 percent.

Treasury prices rose again early Tuesday, sending the 10-year note yield down to 3.94 percent from 3.97 percent late Monday. The dollar retreated against the yen and euro.

Brent oil futures gained 38 cents to $26.47 a barrel in London, where gold climbed in early trading.

On the economic front, investors will be watching for the Conference Board's March report on consumer confidence, set for 10 a.m. ET. Economists surveyed by Briefing.com expect to see the index dip to 62 from 64 in February.

At the same time, the National Association of Realtors plans to release the February report on existing home sales. The annual rate is expected to decline to 5.8 million from 6.09 million a year earlier.