U.S. stocks fell on Tuesday after a dour forecast from Home Depot and April retail sales data pointed to consumers feeling the pinch from rising prices and interest rates, ahead of crucial debt limit talks.
The Commerce Department reported retail sales rose 0.4% in April, at half the pace against an expected increase of 0.8%. But the underlying trend was solid, despite growing risks of a recession this year.
“The retail sales data has been positive in several months, but it’s still weak,” said Jamie Cox, managing partner at Harris Financial Group.
US stocks flat ahead of retail sales data, earnings
“It basically reinforces what we saw from Home Depot this morning. You are probably seeing the end of the decline in retail sales, but it’s not going to be a smooth ride from here.”
Home Depot shed 3.3%, hitting its lowest level in over six months and weighing on the Dow Jones Industrial Average after the company lowered its annual sales forecast.
Shares of rival Lowe’s Companies Inc fell 2.9%, while retail giant Walmart Inc slipped 0.9%.
The S&P 500 retail index lost 0.6%.
Data recently has pointed to a slowing U.S. economy, which is starting to feel the heat from the Federal Reserve’s restrictive monetary policy, and also heightened expectations for when the central bank will pause its hiking cycle.
Cleveland Fed President Loretta Mester, however, said on Tuesday that she does not think the Fed is at a point yet where it can hold interest rates steady for a period of time.
The main indexes started the week with modest gains, as trading was range-bound amid a wrangling in Washington between the White House and Republicans.
They will sit down later in the day to try to make progress on a deal to raise the U.S. government’s $31.4 trillion debt ceiling and avert an economically catastrophic default.
At 9:41 a.m. ET, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 143.45 points, or 0.43%, at 33,205.15, the S&P 500 was down 10.39 points, or 0.25%, at 4,125.89, and the Nasdaq Composite was down 17.71 points, or 0.14%, at 12,347.50.
Microsoft Corp rose 0.9%, extending its gains to a second day after winning EU antitrust approval for its $69 billion acquisition of Activision on Monday.
Shares of Capital One Financial Corp jumped 5.4%, rising the most on the S&P 500, after Berkshire Hathaway Inc on Monday disclosed it has begun investing in the consumer lender.
Berkshire also upped its stake in HP Inc, sending its shares up 0.8%, while shedding stake in regional bank US Bancorp, which dipped 0.1%.
Horizon Therapeutics plunged 18.4% as the Federal Trade Commission is expected to file a lawsuit to block Amgen Inc’s $27.8 billion deal to buy the company. Shares of Amgen fell 0.2%.
Declining issues outnumbered advancers for a 3.14-to-1 ratio on the NYSE and for a 2.31-to-1 ratio on the Nasdaq.
The S&P index recorded one new 52-week high and five new lows, while the Nasdaq recorded 20 new highs and 60 new lows.
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