NEW YORK: US stocks fell as markets reopened Tuesday after a long holiday weekend, with share prices giving up some of the ground they gained during a five-day rally last week.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 16.61 points (0.13 percent) to 12,566.16 in the first half-hour of trading.
The broader S&P 500 dropped 3.01 points (0.22 percent) to 1,336.66, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite shed 1.14 points (0.04 percent) to stand at 2,814.89.
US markets were closed on Monday because of the July 4 Independence Day holiday. Before the holiday, Wall Street enjoyed its strongest week in two years, with the Dow surging 5.4 percent in five days.
"Traders today are likely wondering whether the markets can continue Friday's positive momentum," said Sarah Wasserman, an analyst with Schaeffer's Investment Research.
The US Census Bureau reported on Tuesday that new orders for manufactured goods had risen 0.8 percent in May, following a 0.9 percent drop in April.
Investors are awaiting reports due later this week on jobless claims and unemployment levels, which are closely watched gauges of the strength of the world's largest economy.
Shares of Microsoft were down 0.2 percent despite Monday's announcement that the US software giant had agreed to provide English-language search results from its Bing search engine to Chinese web portal Baidu.
Natural gas pipeline operator Southern Union, the object of a bidding battle in recent weeks, surged 2.7 percent after Energy Transfer Equity raised its bid for the company to $8.9 billion. ETE's own stock was flat.
Bond prices rose. The yield on the 10-year US Treasury note fell to 3.14 percent from 3.20 percent late Friday, while that on the 30-year bond dropped to 4.37 percent from 4.40 percent.
Bond prices and yields move in opposite directions.
Copyright AFP (Agence France-Presse), 2011
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