Stocks are sliding

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(Simon Williams/BI Australia)

Stocks opened lower on Tuesday after a strong opening day to the week that brought the S&P 500 within a few points of a new closing high.

Near 2:03 p.m. ET, the Dow was down 114 points, the S&P 500 was down 20 points, and the Nasdaq was down 74 points.

The big economic news today is that the US trade deficit ballooned to $51.4 billion.

This number was an unprecedented jump on a couple of fronts: the deficit was a six-year high, and much more than the $41.7 billion economists had forecast, and is the biggest deficit since October 2008. This is also a 43.1% increase from last month and is the largest in 18 years.

Following the release, downgrades to first quarter Gross Domestic Product started rolling in, and several economists now estimate that GDP was actually negative, not 0.2% as first reported.

And, the service sector expanded in April. Markit Economics' latest services PMI came in at 57.4 in April, just below expectations. ISM's non-manufacturing index also indicated expansion in April, rising to 57.8 from 56.5 in March while topping expectations for a reading of 56.2.

In earnings, Disney posted earnings per share better than analyst had expected. It has now beat forecasts every quarter for four years.

Disney shares jumped to a new all-time high of around $113 in pre-market trading.

West Texas Intermediate crude oil crossed the $60 per barrel mark for the first time since December.

And as oil prices continue their rebound, Saudi Arabia's oil minister told CNBC on Tuesday that the price of oil is up to Allah.

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