U.S. stock indexes edged lower in early afternoon trading Tuesday, after the Commerce Department said retail activity slipped in April.

The overall index for U.S. retail sales fell a marginal 0.2 percent on the month and would have gained 0.3 percent, ahead of expectations, if slumping auto sales were excluded from the report.

Total sales for February through April were 2.2 percent above a year ago, the report said.

The Dow Jones industrial average slid 67.25 points in early afternoon trading Tuesday to 12,800.06, off 0.52 percent. The Standard and Poor's 500 index fell 2.94 points to 1,400.64, off 0.21 percent. The Nasdaq composite index fell 6.59 points to 2,481.90, off 0.26 percent

The 10-year U.S. Treasury note fell 18/32 to yield 3.867 percent.

The euro traded at $1.5498 from Monday's $1.5537 and the dollar traded at 104.51 yen from Monday's 103.94 yen.

In Tokyo, the Nikkei index gained 210.37 points to 13,953.73, up 1.53 percent.

In London, the FTSE 100 index lost 14.30 points to close at 6,206.30, off 0.23 percent.

Copyright 2008 by United Press International


Publication date: 13 May 2008   

Source: UPI-1-20080513-12272900-bc-us-markets-1stld.xml

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