Stocks slipped on reports of lower retail sales & comments by Ben Bernanke, Chairman of the FED. Dow was down 68, decliners over advancers about 3-2 & NAZ was down 9. Retail sales were down 2.2% in Apr, in line with expectation but the 2nd decline in 3 months. The decline was caused by lower auto sales. Without autos, sales rose .5%, better than expectations. But consumers were holding back on big ticket autos. Comments by Bernanke explained their financial moves in recent weeks. Much of it is technical, however while conditions have improved, he admitted things are still not "normal." The housing market remains in a severe recession. Home prices dropped 7.7% in Q1, the sharpest drop since they began keeping statistics in 1982, markets are selling off on this announcement
Hewlett-Packard (HPQ), a Dow stock, agreed to buy Electronic Data Systems for 25, a modest premium to it's price. HPQ is down 2.81 while EDS is up 37¢. Buyout news can help stocks (i.e. tech stocks), but not today.
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