Wall Street whipsaws on conflicting reports on Iran deal

(Reuters) - U.S. stocks were whipsawed on Tuesday on conflicting reports on whether President Donald Trump will withdraw the United States from the Iran nuclear deal.

The stocks pared losses to trade flat after CNN reported Trump was expected to allow sanctions to go forward on Iran, but would not withdraw from the deal.

But those moves evaporated after the New York Times reported that Trump told French President Emmanuel Macron the United States was going to pull out of the deal.

"We're getting conflicting reports about the Iran deal. CNN reported that (Trump) would not withdraw but the New York Times is reporting that he will withdraw," said Michael Antonelli, managing director, institutional sales trading at Robert W. Baird in Milwaukee.

"The market will struggle until we get clarity on this."

At 11:51 a.m. ET, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 25.41 points, or 0.08 percent, at 24338.76. The S&P 500 lost 3.99 points, or 0.15 percent, to 2,668.64 and the Nasdaq Composite dropped 11.70 points, or 0.16 percent, to 7,253.52.

(Reporting by Sruthi Shankar in Bengaluru; Editing by Anil D'Silva)