* Wal-Mart, Home Depot quarterly earnings top estimates
* China fears pressure commodities, Ireland still in focus
* US core producer prices unexpectedly fall in October
* Indexes down: Dow 1.5 pct, S&P 1.6 pct, Nasdaq 1.7 pct (Updates to midmorning)
By Edward Krudy
NEW YORK, Nov 16 (Reuters) - U.S. stocks fell broadly on Tuesday as concerns about China and Ireland sparked a move out of riskier assets and offset strong quarterly results and upbeat forecasts from major retailers Wal-Mart and Home Depot.
Shares in Europe slid ahead of a meeting of euro zone finance ministers, who will try to find a way to end Ireland's debt crisis, but Dublin resisted pressure to seek a bailout as investors watched warily.
Chinese shares sank nearly 4 percent to a one-month low on reports that China will unveil food price controls and crack down on commodity speculation to contain inflationary pressure.
In a risk averse commodity-led slide that has become familiar pattern over the last week and a half, crude oil futures lost 2.1 percent and copper skidded nearly 4 percent. That weighed on natural resource stocks such as Alcoa Inc, which fell 3.4 percent to $12.94
Paul Zemsky, head of asset allocation at ING in New York, said that if Ireland's problems escalated he would underweight core European equities, while if the problems appeared more systemic, that would prompt him to underweight equities in general.
"If we get a situation where it looks like Ireland will actually result in a contagion event then you need to be underweight equities because developed world economies are already weak. Another economic shock can lead to some pretty bad outcomes," he said.
"The contagion effect would lead to a big pullback in banking in Europe and perhaps falling into the U.S., you'd want to be underweight equities in that situation full stop."
Dow components Wal-Mart Stores Inc and Home Depot Inc both raised their profit views, and Wal-Mart also forecast positive same-store sales for the holiday season. Home Depot cut its full-year sales outlook.
The Dow Jones industrial average fell 172.26 points, or 1.54 percent, at 11,029.71. The Standard & Poor's 500 Index lost 19.24 points, or 1.61 percent, at 1,178.51. The Nasdaq Composite Index fell 42.87 points, or 1.71 percent, at 2,470.95.
Zemsky's base case is that Ireland's problems are resolved. He is currently overweight U.S., core European and emerging market equities. He is underweight peripheral European stocks.
Wal-Mart rose 2.1 percent to $55.08, while Home Depot was up 3.6 percent to $32.52. and
In economic data, U.S. core producer prices unexpectedly fell in October in their largest decline in more than four years, underscoring the U.S. Federal Reserve's concerns about the low inflation environment.
General Motors boosted its convertible preferred stock offering by $1 billion and will increase the price range for its much-anticipated initial public offering to between $32 and $33 per share. The IPO is due to begin trading in New York and Toronto on Thursday. (Reporting by Edward Krudy; Editing by Kenneth Barry)