NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) - Stocks slumped at the open Tuesday, backing the Dow industrials off the 11,000 mark, spurred by higher oil and Alcoa's earnings miss.

The Dow Jones industrial average (down 46.82 to 10,965.08, Charts), the broader S&P 500 (down 5.20 to 1,284.95, Charts) index and the Nasdaq composite (down 12.36 to 2,306.33, Charts) all slipped in the early going.

The major gauges have gained through the first five sessions of the year, all breaking through to fresh 4-1/2 to 5-year highs. After such an advance, stocks were vulnerable to a pullback Tuesday, particularly amid some downbeat corporate news.

Dow component Alcoa essentially began the fourth-quarter earnings reporting period on a discouraging note. The aluminum maker reported earnings late Monday of 24 cents per share, short of earnings a year earlier and well below forecasts. The company blamed lower production due to strikes and restructuring costs, among other things.

Alcoa (down $1.83 to $28.74, Research) shares fell 7 percent in the morning.

Fellow Dow stock Home Depot (up $0.36 to $41.18, Research) edged higher after announcing that it would buy Hughes Supply (up $7.01 to $45.56, Research) for almost $3.2 billion.

U.S. light crude oil for February delivery rose 33 cents to $63.83 a barrel in electronic trading.

Treasury prices slipped, raising the yield on the 10-year note to 4.39 percent from around 4.36 percent late Monday. Treasury bond yields and prices move in opposite directions.

In currency markets, the dollar rose versus the euro and was little changed versus the yen.

COMEX gold for February delivery slumped $7.60 to $542.90 an ounce.

In global trade, major Asian markets ended lower and European markets fell at midday.