U.S. equities retreated again on Tuesday, extending the losing streak started at the end of last week amid concern over the situation in Iraq.

Reflecting concern about the situation in the Middle East, the barrel of crude oil climbed to $31.15, the highest in three weeks, while gold futures added $1.50 to $388.20 an ounce.

Biotech stocks were under pressure after Vertex Pharmaceuticals and its partner Aventis said they were halting testing a rheumatoid arthritis experimental treatment on patients.

Also, Immunomedics lost half of its value after saying it was considering a licensing partner other than Amgen to develop in North America and Australia one of its products. Amgen had decided not to proceed with its licensing rights over epratuzumab, a humanized monoclonal antibody therapeutic.

In the IT space, Oracle raised doubts about its $7.3-billion hostile bid for rival PeopleSoft, which weighed on the stock.

“If the PeopleSoft board is permitted to continue to issue self-serving entrenchment motivated contracts under the revised money back offer, Oracle may be forced to abandon its bid as it will no longer be economically reasonable,” Oracle said in a court filing related to the takeover bid.

OUTLOOK

Weekly claims for unemployment benefits will remain in the spotlight on Thursday for signs of further improvement in the jobs market. Claims have moved further away from the 400,000 level that signals a contraction in the labor market.

THE NUMBERS

The Dow Jones Industrial Average gave up 19 points, or 0.2 percent, to 9,738. The Nasdaq Composite Index lost 11 points, or 0.6 percent, to 1,931, while the Nasdaq-100 index of large-capitalization tech and biotech stocks ended down 0.3 percent at 1,409.