According to Bloomberg, U.S. stocks are fluctuating in the wake of recent housing reports. In fact, the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index fell four straight days in a row, as investors sifted through home sales data and weighed the possibility of a government shutdown.

“There is a lot of skittishness on what’s to come in terms of Washington budget negotiations,” Diane Jaffee, the New York-based group managing director for U.S. equities who oversees about $6.4 billion in assets at TCW Group Inc., said in a phone interview.

The S&P 500 fell 0.3 percent yesterday, pushing its four-day slide to 1.6 percent, as investors watched the debate in Washington over spending cuts that could lead to a government shutdown after funding authority ends on Sept. 30.